A Hotel Transylvania Holiday Love Story
by Cosmina Inspira
Summary: Beginning not long after HT2, it's a chance for an unexpected second Zing for everyone's favorite Vampire hotel manager. But behind the scenes is schemes for revenge from two old enemies, which may end up forcing Drac to face a centuries long dormant inner darkness. The Darkness is unleashed in chapter 29. Humor and a touch of Suspense. Now M for mild language and adult themes.
1. Chapter 1 The Prologues

A Hotel Transylvania Holiday Love Story

A fan fiction by Cosmic Inspiration

Disclaimer: The Hotel Transylvania franchise is the property of Sony Pictures Animation. This author makes no profit from these stories and only writes for fun and love of the movies. All original characters are the property of the fanfic author Cosmic Inspiration.

Prologue 1

Through the sparse wispy Cirrus type clouds in the fair blue sky, the bright luminous Sun slowly descended low over the horizon to stretch shadows long and cool in the historic and now lively European city of Bucharest, capital and cultural center of beautiful and historic Romania.

The city was a strange contradiction to itself, and yet that is what made it balance out well and lent to its own charm. Old European structures such as old Gothic churches, and later buildings of Neo-Classical and art deco styles such as the Palace of Parliament, the Romanian Athenaeum, and the Palace of Justice coexisted beside more modern yet somewhat drabber and less impressive architecture, most being from the days of Communist rule of much of Eastern Europe. Mixed among them were also more contemporary architecture such as Unirea Shopping Center and the Skytower that was part of the Floreasca City Center, all drawing tourists of every kind from around the world.

With a new place came not just new sights, but new experiences for the out of town traveler looking to sample the atmosphere and local cuisine, or experience the excitement of events and local celebrations. Or when there were no celebrations, the city still offered plenty of entertainment with local street performers or vendors selling their homemade goods, and shops with plenty of novelties and tacky souvenirs.

One such tourist had experienced the city in most of these typical ways, but she had little interest in shopping for the souvenirs, but more in just being in the moment and finding the hidden gems and lesser known tour destinations of any place she had visited.

For now she took some time to relax and enjoyed the view of the city street as people passed by the local coffee shop and she contemplated her next destination.

Some of her thoughts mused on places she had been during her months long travels through Europe, going places she had always dreamed of going and of places she never thought she would ever go to or ever thought she would even enjoy but now held a special place in her memories.

She had gone to places she dreamed of going, such as Ireland and much of the United Kingdom, parts of France, including Paris, Spain, and even Rome, Italy and parts of Greece. She had also visited parts of Germany, Austria, Poland, and now she had made her way further into Eastern Europe to Romania, and maybe she will eventually visit parts of Russia and the Ukraine.

For a short while she thought of the last place she had visited before coming to Bucharest, the old ruins of a castle with a tragic fairy tale story to it. Castle ruins throughout Europe or any part of the world were nothing new, but for a strange reason these ruins had enchanted her somehow, as though it were déjà vu.

The story of Castle Lubov had touched something in her she could not describe, a feeling of true love calling out to her to be set free as though trapped for so many long years; and at the same time she felt a lingering grieving loneliness. As she toured the castle and its once palatial rooms, she felt as though she could picture what they had once been like back in the day, like faint precious memories trying to surface from a near forgotten time of childhood. But then tragedy struck, a mysterious fire somehow sparked in the night and nearly destroyed the peaceful and happy home of the loving couple within, sealing them a fiery doom as though fate were against the deep connection shared by the Lady Lubov and her mysterious consort.

Although she considered herself an open minded skeptic, she wondered how much truth there was to such an enchanting and tragic story, for she also got this feeling towards the end of the tour of a lingering grief and bitter anger, as though there was also some kind of curse upon the ruins.

Not that she believed in any way or form in curses.

The only disappointment she experienced from the tour was not getting to see the legendary burned portrait of the noble woman. She had learned that the remains of the portrait of the late Lady Lubov, which had been preserved and hung in the castle for several decades, had been removed for preservation cleaning due to gathering dust and mold, but also were now going to be put in a Romanian national museum for more people to see.

Though she supported such an action as she had formerly worked for a museum herself, she still felt a bit robbed for not being able to see the picture herself before its removal for she had a bit of a morbid curiosity of what the Lady had looked like.

It was strange, as she was feeling some sort of connection to the mysterious noble woman, like she was a distant relative. But that was impossible for her as her American family is said to have had previous ancestors migrating from Scotland and Ireland.

For now she just dismissed it as a charmed feeling from her long travels through the European continent, as she had experienced almost similar feelings in other castle ruins. Yet she knew this was somehow a bit different, as if in some way it was a forgotten chapter of her own lonely life.

A loneliness she tried not to linger on for too long, as it only reminded her of her pain and the burden of her terrible and embarrassing secret.

Elona Parker, an attractive woman in her early thirties with back length silky brown hair, and a healthy lithe muscular dancer's figure took the last gulps of her cooling coffee as she looked at her smart watch and left a moderate tip for the local coffee shop. She gathered her luggage, a matching carryon bag and rolling suitcase, and made her way to the local bus station to catch her ride to her next destination, a place she was strangely looking forward to visiting as it sounded quite eccentric, yet somehow fit in well with Romania's best known allure, folklore in the supernatural. But in particular, Vampires.

The place she was headed to was said to be a now booming and popular exclusive monster themed hotel which opened its doors to the public only a few years ago, and became most popular during Halloween and a local small town's annual Monster Festival.

The story behind this tourist destination was that it was build more than a hundred years ago by the infamous Count Dracula himself as a safe haven for monsters and assorted supernatural creatures to come to for their own getaway time, because even monsters needed a vacation every now and then. And then only a few years ago, Count Dracula needed help to get to the local airport in broad day light to bring a new human friend to his hotel because this same human now had a kind of Romeo and Juliet thing going on with Dracula's daughter.

It was an adorable story, and she always enjoyed a good story to go with her unusual experiences. It just somehow made the trips all the more memorable and people tried to find ways of doing the unusual and eccentric, even if just to draw curious tourists.

There's really no real harm to it, just playful and innocent fun and people always loved a good story and experiencing the unusual and outright weird.

Elona boarded the bus for the next Transylvanian town, where she would take a taxi to the hidden castle and her next destination, the appropriately named Hotel Transylvania.

Prologue 2

This was beyond humiliating.

It was outright undignified. No, it was beyond that too, he was on the very cusp of losing all of his dignity and self respect.

He belonged elsewhere, not in this repulsive festering pool of filth and bile to while away his days in the lowest of occupations.

Somehow, someday soon, he will win back his dignity and better yet become head chef again and the hotel's new manager, and show his fool of a boss who is the better monster.

Thoughts of revenge and payback had been all that had sustained Quasimodo Wilson, _former_ chef extraordinaire of Hotel Transylvania.

He remembered fondly and nostalgically of the days he created the best and most delectable dishes he catered for the hotel's distinguished monster guests and created lavish feasts for his boss's extravagant celebrations, such as his daughter's birthday.

Even if he _occasionally_ mistakenly made a wrong dish or appetizer than what his boss requested, he was still the best chef for the hotel and he knew everything would fall apart without him, even with his boss's over controlling nature for perfection.

Quasimodo knew he was an essential part, if not the very backbone for the hotel guests most basic and pleasurable needs, and he always showed his passion and drive to go above and beyond what was expected of him as a loyal hotel employee.

And best yet, he had the creative mind and was driven to create new and never before done recipes to keep the culinary arts fresh and new at the old hotel, the one exception to change his boss was open to.

But now, because of his boss's own foolishness and weird circumstances beyond his control he had been reduced to cleaning and plunging hotel toilets and working in sewage, with the zombie janitor Mr. Ghouligan as his supervisor.

It all started with a human somehow coming to the well hidden and isolated hotel, his wonderful and faithful little Esmeralda having suspiciously smelled one when he showed his boss one of his dishes for his daughter's birthday party. On occasion his little beloved rat friend sniffed out that same human, who for some reason his boss chose to hide instead of destroying to keep the hotel, and its guests, safe as it was always meant to do.

So Quasimodo got the idea to do his boss a favor and destroy the human himself, but it was an even better idea to make it into a delicious dinner for his boss and the hotel guests, because after all Quasimodo prided himself as a passionate gourmet chef first and foremost.

It made him enthusiastic and excited the more he thought about what dish to make the human into, and his passion exploded when he decided on Human Potpie, something that he had never done before and no doubt would have greatly pleased the guests once they tasted his finished recipe.

But his boss continued to stubbornly and foolishly protect the human boy, trying to claim he wasn't a human but a Stein. Yet, his failure to frighten his precious and brave Esmeralda proved Quasimodo right and he tried to angrily bring it to the attention of the hotel staff and guests, but his boss magically paralyzed him.

Quasimodo was left with no other choice than to expose the human and his boss's betrayal at the birthday party, even if shown to be embarrassingly and unwillingly 'picking his nose' due to his frozen state.

Just as he expected to happen, panic ensued and after the human boy was exposed no one was willing to trust Quasimodo's boss with the protected sanctuary of the hotel again. Some guests even checked out immediately after the shocking revelation.

But his victory was bitter sweetly short lived.

It was only after the next night he learned his boss's daughter and the human boy had 'zinged' and it didn't matter to her that a boy she liked was the bitter hateful enemy of monster kind. Part of Quasimodo actually applauded and in a weird way admired this, as he is also French and even French monsters are romantics at heart.

However he wasn't the one who had lied, who had something to hide and betrayed the trust of the hotel guests; but he was still the one who got the short end of the gnarled stick.

Not long after the end of his boss's daughter's birthday celebration, Quasimodo was left to remain petrified for what seemed like the longest time, never sure if it was days or weeks but it certainly felt like years.

It turned out only after a few months, his boss finally released him from the paralyzing spell before the human boy and his daughter were to marry, but only to tell Quasimodo his services were not longer required as the head chef of Hotel Transylvania, and he wanted the hunchback out of his hotel and out of his land immediately.

Quasimodo was so shocked and angered at this sudden dismissal he could only throw a fit and shout obscenities in old French, but he calmed down enough eventually to beg his boss to let him stay at the hotel because he had nowhere else to go, not even his ancestral homeland of modern day France would accept him.

The whole time his boss just remained indifferent to Quasimodo's begging and ranting, staring at the diminutive former cook from his own imposing height with his cold piercing sapphire blue eyes and a frown which further accentuated his long and sharp facial features.

Finally, with what might have been a look of thought and consideration for the longest time, his boss said he was not without a heart or sympathy for his fellow monsters, after all that's what the hotel was originally meant for.

But he would keep Quasimodo on not as head chef, but as a hotel plumber.

Quasimodo was outraged by this, grudgingly demanding to know who would now be the lead cook of the hotel, his boss simply saying the job now fell to the gargoyle waiters as he believed them more than capable. But Quasimodo knew it was only an excuse and place holder, as the gargoyles formerly under his supervision were complacent without the right guidance, making them outright stupid, which is why they needed a firm hand.

Why his boss would now trust them with an honor and responsibility was perplexing to Quasimodo, to which his boss only said he wasn't going to take any chances with Quasimodo as head chef anymore if the hunchback was going to threaten Johnny's life and in turn his daughter's happiness.

Quasimodo's boss then further warned him in a strangely bleak and ominous way if the hunchback ever did threaten anybody close to him again, his boss would personally see the end of him, and even threaten to eat his precious Esmeralda.

The hunchback was left with no other choice then to accept his boss's terms and the fate laid out before him.

And so ever since, for the longest years, he did not know how many as he lost count after the first year, Quasimodo Wilson has had to while away his days in menial labor in an occupation that was the lowest of the low.

But maybe the worst part of it was that the hotel now allowed humans as guests, and in turn their own repugnant waste.

It meant the integrity and true purpose of the hotel had been tarnished and forgotten, which meant his boss was an even bigger fool than Quasimodo first believed.

Aside from thoughts of revenge against his boss and regaining his dignity, what also drove Quasimodo these days was rising to the top as the new and even superior hotel manager as well as head chef again. How he craved such prestige and respect as days and years passed the longer he remained in such a putrid job occupation.

He knew one day he would get his chance, but nowadays he began to doubt it would ever really come.

Now as he finally finished cleaning the bathroom and kitchenette of a vacant hotel guest room, he closed the polished wooden door just as he heard the sounds of some kind of ruckus coming down the long hallway before he even saw it, quickly recognizing it as the uncontrolled and undisciplined pack of werewolf pups who constantly made chaotic messes and left a path of havoc behind in their continuous play fighting.

Quasimodo noticed they seemed to be chasing something which flew and flittered about them as it tried to escape the rabble of pups, something small and almost bat like, but he couldn't make out what it was as he had to take shelter behind the janitorial cart he currently used.

The mini hurricane of pups was upon him as they continued to try and catch their fleeting prey, or attack and nip or mock maul each other, and all he could remember was how it was so sudden but it was enough to make Quasimodo freeze behind his makeshift and minimal shield with his eyes shut tightly and arms over his round head for little protection. Fur flew like a light snow and there were the high pitches of puppy yelps and play growls as the werewolf kids fought each other to nearly destroy the janitorial cart and its contents.

Finally, the young wolves' destructive hurricane of playmaking passed to leave behind a haze of dust and shed flying puppy fur to allow Quasimodo to slowly emerge from behind the cart and shout at the pack of wolf pups in angry archaic French with an anger punching fist in the air.

"You little brats," he yelled at fleeting youngsters as he switched back to English (or maybe translated Romanian here), "Watch where you're going, and take your delinquent fighting elsewhere!"

He mumble obscenities in some more archaic French as he set to cleaning and gathering up the equipment and rubbish that had been spilled and knockout by the storm of werewolf pups.

He then heard a faint but strange voice say, "Finally, I thought never lose those irritating little brats."

Quasimodo looked around in confusion for a moment to see where the voice was coming from, for a moment thinking he might have imagined it.

He then spotted a strange little bat like creature emerge from the trash bin to brush itself off, Esmeralda squeaking her angered annoyance at the little creature at disturbing her nap in her personal sanctuary of the trash can.

Though the creature was the same size as the rat, it gave off an amazing snarling roar at Esmeralda for its size, scaring her so badly she squeaked in fear and ran to hide in one of Quasimodo's janitor shirt pockets.

"'Ey," Quasi yelled, "Why did you go and scare Esmeralda for?" He tried to reassure and calm her down as he felt her shaking in his pocket and he petted her affectionately as he said soothingly,

"It's okay, my sweet, it'll be okay."

He then looked back at the little bat creature and demanded, "What in the name of Notre Dame are you?"

"The name's Bela," the creature said with a rather high pitched but snarling voice as he continued to brush himself off, "And I was once the leader of a crew of vicious Bat Demons that loyally served the Vampire, Vlad. But that phony old coot betrayed me and shrank me down to this size, making me into a chew toy for those rampaging little were runts. I admire their need for fun chaos and destruction, but its gets old very fast when I'm in the middle of it."

"Vlad?" Quasimodo said with a raised eyebrow.

"The old man of that soft hearted fool, Dracula, who's supposed to run this pathetic human hugging hotel."

A smile of malice came to Quasimodo's face, making him look even more sinister as he heard this.

"Wi, I think I remember hearing rumors of _Monsieur_ Dracula's father arriving at ze hotel recently. And he betrayed you, eh? I, too, have been betrayed by _Monsieur_ Dracula. I was once ze finest and head gourmet chef at Hotel Transylvania, but after I tried to make a human into a delectable dinner for ze 'otel guests, he demoted me to zees miserable plumbing job," he growled.

"Humans," Bela growled, "Weak, miserable creatures, nothing but sacks of putty, only good for stealing their delicate but sustaining souls."

"Perhaps," Quasi said, if a bit sickened by the small creature's view of humans, "And zey ever only persecuted us and wanted to destroy good decent monsters with zeir hate. Zat's why ze hotel was created, as a safe sanctuary for all of monster kind. Now, _Monsieur_ Dracula has foolishly allowed zem into ze hotel, and it sickens me how it has all gone down hill."

"As I told that weak little human boy and his little pet, humans don't belong with monsters. I thought Vlad understood that because he was always so about tradition," Bela snarled, "Now he's turned his back on the ancient ways and has grown weak like his son and the rest of his pathetic family."

"I fully agree," Quasimodo smirked, "Humans do not belong here and must be purged from ze hotel. If you 'elp me do zat, I will 'elp you get back at Vlad, and even find a way to restore your real size."

Bela seemed unsure at first, but the more he thought about it, the more appealing it sounded. If it meant a chance at chaos and revenge and it meant however he can get it, then he was in.

"Stick with me," Quasimodo smirked in overconfidence as he allowed Bela to perch on his shoulder, "With my cleverness and your thirst for chaos and brute strength, we should make an interesting team. _Monsieur_ Dracula and _Monsieur_ Vlad won't know what's coming."

They both gave low malicious laughs at their new forged alliance.

Esmeralda, however, still hiding in Quasimodo's shirt pocket, was not so sure.


	2. Chapter 2 Past Tenses and Future Echoes

Past Tenses and Future Echoes

It was the typical bedroom of a little boy, if the boy was part of a wealthy enough family, for it was nearly three times larger than the average bedroom for the average suburban household. All around was an assortment of toys such as a giant teddy bear in one corner, a small workable train set with a circle shaped track, above hung lanterns meant to represent the planets of the solar system, and one of the walls was covered in blue wallpaper with white clouds and scattered stars on one side and a smiling sun in a blue sky on the other side against which was a racecar bed with an elegantly carved wooden hood over it with draped curtains.

It was a bit darkened, save for one brightly lit corner where an adorable little boy with curly bright red hair, bright blue eyes, wearing a bright yellow shirt with a green number 4, brown shorts, and roughly five years old played with a pile of toys and action figures, off in his own make believe world as he pretended a super hero action figure was being eaten by a Godzilla toy.

"Raahhh!" he roared for the Godzilla toy, "Oh, no! I'm bein' eaten alive, ahhh! Nom, nom, nom!"

Too entranced in his fun, he didn't really notice the wooden door to his room slowly open with a faint ominous creak to it. At first there was no one there, yet there seemed to pass in the background a faint shadow with an essence of black mist and a quiet whisper of something dark lurking in the shadows.

The door then closed slowly with the same faint creak to click closed, for a moment this drew the boy's attention away from his game as he looked around his room curiously. But when he saw nothing, he just shrugged and went back to playing, this time he made the Godzilla toy stomp on a toy school bus then battle it out with a stegosaurus figure and then what may have a been a giant robot toy.

There came that same faint whisper again, as though closer this time and foretelling of the presence of something sinister.

Again the boy looked around his faintly lit room and still saw nothing, but a look of suspicion crossed his round cherub face.

He again continued with his fun play making with his toys, seeming never noticing the silhouette within the shadows as it now took on a near humanoid shape right behind him. It came closer to him, two slits of eyes glowed an icy cold blue as it approached ever closer to its vulnerable and innocent target.

A sinister smile formed beneath the cold eyes like an evil twin to the Cheshire Cat's grin to reveal bright white teeth, among which was a pair of deadly looking fangs of a predator.

A long pair of humanoid arms ending in hands with long fingers then emerged from the seeming malevolent shadow figure, as though to snatch the poor innocent boy from his home with the intent of completely devouring his very being, but the little boy just got a small mischievous smile on his face.

Almost as though he were expecting this.

The hands of the shadowed figure suddenly came down upon the boy to catch him off guard as the figure playfully said,

"Gotcha! Huh?"

But a moment before his hands clapped together, the little boy had disappeared in a puff of emerald green mist, leaving the figure confused for only a moment as he looked around for the boy in the faintly lit area.

The figure was revealed to be that of a man with a long handsome face and sharp features and rather pale skin with the darkest black hair slicked back on his head and a pair of amazing wide blue eyes. He wore elegant all black clothes in fashions that seemed to be from the turn of the last century, accentuated by a long black cape with a high collar and purple trimming on the inside, all which told of him being an icon in different ways in two very different and yet similar worlds.

He then smiled playfully as he said with a raspy voice thick with a Romanian accent,

"Oh-ho, is that how you want to play it, my little Devil Dog? Well, you can't hide forever, I'm gonna find you."

There came a clear child's giggle from somewhere in the room, making the darkly clad man look up to see a little black bat with the boy's same curly red hair and bright blue eyes looking upside down at him.

"Aha! There you are!" the man playfully shouted as he too suddenly changed into a bat with blood red eyes in a puff of deep indigo mist and started flying around the bedroom chasing the little black bat, both of them laughing in true lighthearted whimsical fun.

The little bat then went under the door crack as green mist, emerged into the other room and tried to hide behind a large rather frightful tribal mask, the red eyed black bat followed closely as indigo mist then, too, resumed bat form.

"Where are you?" the older bat asked in a singsong voice as he looked around the room, smiling widely.

The little red headed bat giggled as he flew out from his hiding place and again the elder bat chased the younger one in a game of tag around the room.

To try and outwit the elder bat, the little bat flew out a nearby large window and dove down the side of a large Gothic stone castle, the elder bat followed close behind in a rock hard dive to catch up to the younger bat. They both spread their wings to catch updrafts and allowed the wind to carry them out over the long stone bridge over the dark waters of a piranha inhabited lake, the only connection between the enormous stone castle upon its isolated island and the outside world beyond a vast dark forest.

The two bats continued their game of tag as they zigzagged their way between the corbelled arches of the long bridge, the younger blue eyed bat then changed his trajectory on the winds as he shifted direction and headed back towards the castle, the red eyed black bat was not too far behind.

Their merry chase took them through a gateway to a round driveway and through a revolving door between two big, very old and gnarled trees and into a vast lobby where a variety of strange beings went about their business in socializing, checking in at the reception desk, or other activities as the bats flew about above them, too occupied by their fun time.

"I'm gonna get you, Denisovich, I'm gonna get you," the black bat said in a singsong voice.

"No, you're not, Papa," the little red headed bat called back playfully mockingly.

The black bat tried to fly onward to catch up to the little brown bat, but he landed on the side of a stone staircase to stop and tried to catch his breath as the little red headed bat fluttered out in his view.

"Maybe you're right, Denisovich," the black bat said through heavy breathing, "Phew, you're wearing out your old papa. I may be immortal, but I'm not as young as I used to be."

The little red headed bat started to come closer to the his papa bat to comfort him, but the next thing the little bat called Denisovich knew, the black bat grabbed him in his own wings and shouted,

"Gotcha!"

The next instant they resumed their true forms, a black clad man in a cape and a little red headed boy, and they were rolling around on the floor laughing hard as the black clad man started tickling the little boy like crazy.

"Coochie, Coochie coo," he playfully cooed as the little boy squealed with laughter and giggled in his Papa's tickling, his wide smile revealing a pair of small and sharp fangs.

This drew the attention of the many various strange beings in the vast lobby, who all stared on at the adorable scene with various smiles, some thinking the dark haired man should really show a little more dignity and restrain while in full view of other people but there really was no denying the fun he was having with the little boy.

Some of the beings, mostly normal looking humans, got out thin looking boxes and took pictures for preservation as they smiled at what they witnessed, many thinking they would have never thought of seeing the black clad man doing something like tickling a little boy for fun.

Finally realizing where they were, with amazing swiftness like a graceful wind, the darkly clad man stood up with the little boy held lovingly in the crook of his arm.

"Alright, everybody, nothing to see here," he said as he waved his hand dismissively and gave a rather forced smile, Denisovich gave a giggle.

As the crowd of strange beings and humans resumed going about their business, from the crowd a man with youthful features, wild shaggy ginger hair similar to the little boy's, wearing a yellow shirt over a long sleeved orange shirt, khaki shorts, and blue and green tennis shoes ran over to them with a big goofy smile on his fair skinned face as he said,

"Whoa, man, you two were really going at it."

"Daddy!" the little boy yelled excitedly as he literally flew into the ginger haired man's arms, a trail of emerald green mist behind him in the air.

"Hey, Little Dude," his daddy said happily, "Havin' fun with Papa Drac?"

"Yeah!"

The black clad man brushed himself off and straightened out his clothes as he said, "Just having a bit of fun with my vampson. Is everything okay, Johnny? I hope nothing's wrong in my hotel, as it will be fixed immediately if there is."

"Nah," Johnny said, "Everything's going awesome sauce, Drac. Sure the zombie bellhops got a couple of people's luggage mixed up, but it's cool, I took care of it. It's part of being your Human Relations Coordinating co-assistant."

The dark haired man gave a raised eyebrow, as Johnny sometimes seemed to take his 'job' too seriously as real, but then again despite its lax in real responsibility the man called Drac was just glad to have someone to trust with helping him to better relations between his kind and the outside world of humankind. Perhaps he should consider giving Johnny a little more responsibility to curb his son-in-law's slacker attitude and life style, after all he's done so much more than keep his wonderful and precious daughter happy after all these years.

From above, another black bat, this one with wide blue eyes and long eyelashes, flew down to join the all male trio and suddenly transformed in a puff of blue mist into a young woman with short raven black hair and bangs, and icy blue eyes and pale skin similar to the tall man's. She stood lovingly beside Johnny and the little red headed boy, Denisovich as she said,

"There you are, I thought I had left you in your room."

"I was playing tag with Papa Drac, Mommy," the little boy said.

She gave a smile and took him from his daddy's arms as she kissed his little nose and said, "I know. I just still can't stop worrying about you. Besides, what if I wanted to play, too?"

She tickled his tummy and he giggle again, reminding the man, her father of her at that age and how much fun they used to have together.

"I'll be sure next time we do, Mavy," he said, "After all it's our game."

He reached out to tickle her tummy but she flinched back as she groaned, "Daaad."

They all shared a laugh as the dark haired pale skinned man, Count Dracula, looked at them with deep affection, his thoughts wandered on how much had changed in the last few years alone.

To think that his castle, appropriately called Hotel Transylvania, was once only an isolated sanctuary to protect and raise his only daughter away from the outside world, particularly from the hate and persecution of Humans for being what and who she was. But it was also a sanctuary for all other persecuted supernatural and magical creatures whom had endured the same persecution and needed a place for safety and relaxation.

It was a concern he had shared with his beloved late wife, the Lady Martha Lubov, after she showed him she was pregnant with their first child together. Not only would the child need a safe place to grow up, they wanted to extend the same kind of haven to other monsters of all kinds.

For over a hundred and fourteen years his hotel remained isolated from the outside world, until one fateful day the first human to walk through the door, Jonathan Loughran, unknowingly and unexpectedly changed things forever, and for the better.

Johnny and his beloved daughter, Mavis, had Zinged, briefly traveled the world for a few months and then finally got married and settled down at the hotel. A year and a half later to Dracula's surprise and thrill, they had little Denisovich, or rather Dennis as he was known to his human relatives, and not long after Johnny encouraged Dracula to open his hotel up to humans.

At first he was reluctant as Dracula still believed not all humans were that accepting of monsters, but all of his friends got behind the young man's idea and Johnny said it would be like a show of good faith and it would change the perception of monsters a few humans at a time.

Dracula thought about it for a short while, even thought about his strange yet heartwarming experience at the peculiar humans' Monster Festival a few years ago, and decided to do just that and opened his hotel for the first time ever to human guests.

Of course it required a lot of new additions to his hotel such as electrical power for internet WiFi and digital cable for human computers and entertainment, and new kinds of kitchen and cleaning appliances, as well as accepting strange ways of human payment such as credit cards.

It was a lot of changes and a little hard at first to adapt to, but to show Johnny he was willing to try, Dracula even allowed his son-in-law to get Dracula his own iphone. It was still difficult to use sometimes, but Dracula liked to think he was getting better with it.

So far things were going well, though there were still occasional problems, Dracula was able to smooth them out, with a little help from Johnny of course.

With the hotel now open year round to humans and monsters alike, Dracula even gave his closest friends part time seasonal jobs at the hotel, such as Wayne the Werewolf as a tennis instructor, even though he had a tendency to chase and bury balls like a common domestic dog.

His wife, Wanda, had taken a job as a children's activities instructor as she just adored children of all kinds, including humans now, and she had an endless litter after litter of her own pups.

Her best friend Eunice, the wife of Dracula's best and oldest friend Frankenstein, was now a leading manicurist and beautician for the hotel's spa, where Dracula overheard she loved to dole out all the latest gossip with the ladies.

Griffin, the Invisible Man, was an assistant aerobics instructor alongside the Fly, as Griffin already had a bestselling workout DVD in the human world, though from what Dracula saw it may have been more for laughs for the humans rather than fitness.

Also, he heard Frankie had become a best selling author, and often guest stared on human 'talk shows', whatever those were supposed to be, while Murray the Mummy was now a rising fashion show judge, though Dracula wondered why both his friends would do or let along be so interested in doing such things.

As he looked at his now grown family, he looked closely at Mavis and it both warmed and ached his heart how much she looked like her mother, and in turn it made Dracula miss her all the more. He then began to wonder yet again what life would have been like if she had lived to see the completion of the hotel and seen their only daughter grow up. In a way Dracula hoped she would have been proud of him and Mavis, for seeing them happy was all she ever wanted. He then wondered what she might have thought of Johnny and Mavis' Zing, or the inclusion of humans into the hotel now. Would she have been happy of the humans being more accepting of monsters now, or would she have been discussed with him like Dracula's own father was when he first discovered humans and monsters interacting? One thing he knew now is he hoped Martha would have been happy to know was Dracula and his own father, Vlad, had now begun to reconcile and be a family again, for one thing Dracula valued more than anything since that wonderful fateful night he first met his Zing was to have his family together and happy.

He gave a small smile to his family and then glimpsed out to the crowded lobby where guests of all kinds mingled and came together in unexpected ways. His eyes then went to the revolving door as it allowed yet another arriving guest entrance to his lavish resort, and his eyes widened at what he saw.

"Martha?" he breathed in astonishment.

A woman with back length medium brown hair and a slim but curved figure, and wearing khaki shorts and a long sleeved maroon shirt struggled to get her luggage through the elegant gold colored revolving door as she also tried to shake off the effects of her cab ride to the monster themed hotel. She had arrived fine in the nearby town but the taxi ride had been anything but smooth. She had been impressed with how far the theme was taken as the taxi was designed to look like a real old early 20th century hearse and the cab driver was a pumpkin headed creature like the Headless Horseman of the Sleepy Hollow story. It was obviously a way to begin the guests' experience at the themed hotel and Elona smiled as she got into the cab and felt prepared for almost anything, except for the rough ride over untamed and rugged terrain.

The Headless Hearse Driver drove what Elona could only describe like a bat out of hell as it was fast and had to be pushing safety limits as the car shook and even nearly leaned from one side to another to nearly fall and crash on its side in its accelerated speed and making Elona certain they were going to get killed in a fatal crash. She felt so car sick from the ride, she didn't even have a chance to just enjoy the ride and look at the passing landscape around her as she was sure she missed some beautiful scenery as she rode to the hotel.

Right now she was just glad to have made it in one piece, if dizzy and nauseous from the effects of car sickness from the driver's crazy driving.

She finally made it through the door, shook her head a bit to shake away some lingering dizziness, and finally took a better look at her new surroundings. The lobby was enormous, which didn't surprise her too much as she saw how massive the castle itself was so close up, even bigger than she had expected before. It was opulent and luxurious, the lighting a strange asymmetrical mix of warm golds and whiles with cooler deeper blues from modern electrical light sources, even in its sparse furnishings with a long red carpet leading up to the main reception desk and groups of four of plush red chairs on either side, each group surrounding a coffee table in the middle where other guests relaxed and socialized.

On both sides of the main reception desk were two tapestries with the hotel logo and digital monitors advertising the hotel's many different activities and shows to see, and two stone staircases leading up to the next floor while above was an enormous chandelier lighting the room with electric powered bulbs shaped like candle flames, and all across the vast ceiling were shimmering spider webs as though newly made which said 'Welcome Humans.'

This made Elona quirk an eyebrow for a moment, but only smiled at the amazing attention to detail the hotel went to. She looked around the lobby more and saw through the crowd and to one far corner on the other side a man dressed in all black clothes, and for a moment she thought she noticed him looking right at her for some reason. Elona realized he must be the manager of the hotel, possibly even a real nobleman as she had heard the hotel manager was also the owner of the castle he claimed to be of real noble blood. His attention was then drawn to a couple of families coming right up to him, and he started to talk to them. Elona realizing if he was the manager dressed up like the iconic Count Dracula he must be doing some interactions with the guests, like a character meet and greet at many other theme parks.

Maybe later she'll get her own picture with him for memories.

Still feeling the crazy lag from the taxi ride she decided to sit and rest in one of the unoccupied chairs before checking into her room.

"What did you say, Dad?" Mavis asked, not sure if she heard her dad say her mother's name or why.

"Huh, what?" Dracula said as his mind remembered where he was and who he was talking to.

"Excuse us," a man's voice said politely, and Dracula saw a human couple with two young children shyly come up to him.

"Are you the real Count Dracula?" he asked with signs of a faint British accent.

"Yes, I am," Dracula said, "What can I do for you?"

The woman smile wide as she said a bit nervously, "We saw you playing with this adorable little boy here." She pointed to Dennis in Mavis' arms and they both smiled, "And our kids, Clara and Jimmy here wanted to meet you."

Dracula looked down to see the two children, a little girl who may have been seven and a little boy who may have been five like Dennis, looking at him shyly from behind their parents in fascination.

"They want a picture with you, sir. Is that alright with you, Your Grace?" the man asked politely.

Normally, Dracula tried to avoid all of the human over enthusiasm and hyped fandom for his kind, as he was always a private person and preferred it that way since first opening his hotel. However, his friends, like Frankie, seemed to enjoy it, like that time Frankie posed for a picture with two adoring fan girls when trying to teach Dennis how to be a monster.

Yet Johnny told him to interact with humans this way, even just on occasion was good for the hotel's publicity and better relations between monsters and humans.

The Vampire momentarily quirked an eyebrow at the family, and then saw his own family giving him encouraging smiles.

Finally giving in, he smiled politely and said, "Of course it's alright, I'd be happy to."

To seem less intimidating to the two children, he kneeled down to their eye level and gave a friendly smile to them, just enough to not scare them off with the view of his deadly looking fangs.

"Hello there, Clara and Jimmy," he said friendly, "I'm Dracula. Are you having a good time with your parents at the hotel?"

The two children came up to him happily and excitedly said yes, each one going to either side of him as their dad got out his camera, Dracula even teasing the kids with mock bites as they were actually curious and eager to see his fangs.

"Is your camera digital, sir?" Johnny asked, "'Cause he'll only show up on digital pictures."

"Sure is, mate," the dad said, "What isn't these days. Okay, everybody, say bl-."

Before the man continued, he noticed Johnny nervously gesturing for him to stop what he was about to say from behind Dracula, who again quirked an eyebrow in suspicion at what the man was about to say.

Mavis and Dennis just tried to hide their laughs.

"Uh, I mean uh, say cheese," he quickly amended, "Give me big smiles, say cheese."

"Cheese," all three said, Dracula gently holding the children on their shoulders on either side of him, then came the faint click from the camera.

"Thank you," the children said happily, as did their parents, the father shaking Dracula's hand as the family departed.

Strangely, Dracula suddenly felt a warming happiness in his undead heart as he saw how happy the children were at just meeting him. Again they reminded him of his daughter at that age and his little vampson.

Mavis then asked, "Dad, why did you say Mom's name earlier?"

"Hm? Oh, uh…it was nothing, Mouse, there are just times little things remind me of her and I'd say her name," he quickly said, yet he knew it still a hollow excuse.

The human woman he saw enter earlier was sitting in one of the lobby chairs and reading a magazine.

Why she looked like or even reminded him of Martha for a moment was beyond him, but now it didn't matter as it was obviously just a weird figment of his imagination.

In a secluded shadowed corner of the lobby, two pairs of unfriendly eyes had watched the Count's interaction with the human family with growing repulsion.

"You see how he demeans himself," Quasimodo hissed, "It's an insult to all of monster kind and he just willingly goes along their slavering admiration. Ze humans once feared monsters and now they just find us an amusement. It's insulting, you see how it must end."

"Yeah," the little Bela growled, perched upon Quasi's shoulder, "I just want to tear into those mushy humans. Enough gawking, I want some action. When does the destructive fun start?"

"Patience, my little friend," the chef turned plumber said as he patted Bela on the head, making the shrunken Bat Demon glare at him, "I have some ideas of where to start, but first we must assess what has been done to ze hotel and take it down from ze inside. Not only must humans be purged from ze hotel, everyone must be reminded why monsters and humans are not supposed to be together in the first place."

Quasimodo and Bela gave low sinister laughs as they retreated deeper into the shadows and made their way to an unknown destination.


	3. Chapter 3 Complications

Complications

Elona watched the bustling lobby for a few minutes as she rested from her crazy taxi ride, and had to admit to herself how amazingly realistic the monster costumes were as she saw those monsters as guests and what had to be the hotel staff.

There were bellhops dressed as decaying Zombies, the skin a realistic sickly green and their movement stiff and clumsy as they moaned and grunted like people just waking up too early in the morning and haven't yet had a cup of coffee to wake up; there were plenty of women who had to be maids on the housekeeping staff who could have been relatives of the one in The Wizard of Oz classic movie with bright green faces, long pointed noses, and classic witch costumes designed as maids uniforms with crisped and pressed white aprons; in another corner a Mariachi band looking like something for Dia de los Muertos played lively tunes as some people stopped and danced to the music, it was not normally Elona's favorite kind of music but she too found it very enjoyable at the moment; and in several corners their stood very authentic looking suits of old medieval armor that stood at attention at other entrances and some even marched up and down the lobby making sure everything was in order, Elona thought they had to be more impressive costumes or state of the art free walking audio animatronics which were currently a groundbreaking rage at all the Disney theme parks.

From the coffee table she picked at random a magazine to read as she relaxed, while next to her were what looked like some kind of little gremlin with blue hair in a bun and wrinkles of an old lady and in the other was a green amphibious creature reading a newspaper.

Amazing, there were even actors as monster guests to add to the hotel's authentic feel, and all around Elona saw interactions and meet and greets between the human guests and the monster 'guests'.

Even the magazine she began to read had the monster theme integrated into it with an article about Bigfoot and his team in the German Soccer League winning the latest match up, an interview with the famous Frankenstein and his new autobiography Pieces of Me and how it has become a New York Times #1 Best Seller for the fourth week in a row, and there were even adds and coupons for strange and weird monster products such as weight gain pills, or a slime lotion for monsters with dry scales.

She then came across a rather amusing yet thought provoking article about humans' misconceptions and limited understanding of monsters. It was almost like reading an article that couldn't decide if it was about mythology, cryptozoology, or anthropology, or combinations of all three. Still it was an interesting read, and Elona still found it fascinating and very refreshing from her crazy ride.

Before she got far into the next article, she smelt a strong very unpleasant stench nearby, and felt a growing wet sensation near her leg and she looked down to see a puppy using the chair to mark his territory.

"Oh my God!" she yelled in outrage and disgust as she stood up and dropped the magazine and tried to wack him away, though she really didn't want to hurt it as it wasn't her pet and she really loved animals.

"Whose dog is this?" she demanded, "Whoever this puppy belongs to, they need to do a better job of getting it housebroken."

The werewolf pup glared at her with a threatening but still cute puppy growl as it scampered away.

"Growl yourself, you little mutt," she grumbled.

Dracula saw this and could only shake his head in annoyance, again Wayne's pups used his lobby for relieving themselves.

Knowing what he was about to say Johnny eagerly said, "Hey, Drac, can I do it? I've always wanted to say it."

Dracula gave a sigh and nodded reluctantly, if just to allow his son-in-law to satisfy his enthusiasm just this once.

"Housekeeping!" Johnny hollered, and an instant later the witch house maids where all over the lobby with cleaning supplies, one of whom was instantly by Elona's side as she placed a living sponge on the chair Elona had sat on and it began to absorb the puppy urine as it giggled hysterically, Elona watched in both fascination and a bit of freaked out disgust.

The same witch then did the courtesy of cleaning Elona's soaked leg as she said, "I'm so sorry about that, Miss. The tennis instructor's pups are just so rambunctious, you know how it is with kids that age, they just can't help themselves."

Elona only gave a perplexed look at the costumed maid's remark, but just said, "Thanks."

"If you ever need anything else," she said, "Just ask for Isadora."

Elona thanked the maid again as she began reaching for the magazine she had dropped only to then suddenly have it grabbed by the gremlin lady sitting near her and gobbled it up as she opened her mouth wide.

"Hey," Elona yelled, "Excuse me, I wasn't done reading that."

"I didn't do that," was all the gremlin lady said as though indifferent.

Elona just scoffed as she decided this wasn't worth her time and she was rested enough to go check into her room. Somehow she was glad that gimmicked up animatron didn't 'eat' her luggage, as it was all she currently owned in the world.

She made her way to the main reception desk, which too was very spacious and flanked by two tapestries with the hotel logo, and two large digital TV screens advertising various activities offered at the hotel, and from the back wall hung many antique looking keys of various styles and sizes.

"Hi, there," greeted a rather hideous looking creature covered in warts and wearing a red bellhop uniform, "Welcome to Hotel Transylvania, my name's Leonard. How may I help you?"

"My name's Elona Parker, I have a reservation, please," she said, trying to sound as polite as possible and mentally reminding herself to not judge anything based on appearance alone, as this 'monster' might actually be a nice person. Although she wondered who got an idea for such a ridiculous costume design.

"Okay, Miss Parker, let me check what rooms we have available and are appropriate for humans," said Leonard as he typed, rather clumsily, at the computer keyboard. A long two minutes later, Leonard got a worried look on his face as he said,

"I'm sorry, Miss Parker, I'm not seeing you here in the registry."

This made Elona frown as she said, "Are you sure? Because I made a reservation just last week, and got the confirmation by e-mail. Do I need to show it to you? I have my phone right here."

"No, no," Leonard said nervously, "I'm sure it's just a simple mistake, this computer thing is still new. Let me try again."

"Oh, I see," Elona said with sympathy, "The hotel computer system just got an upgrade and you're still learning how to use it. Yeah, that often happens with new software making it more trouble than it's worth."

"Yeah, you could say that," Leonard said, "Something like that."

His gnarled wart covered hands pressed at keyboard buttons again more carefully this time, and less than another minute later he gave a big smile as he said,

"Here you are, and I'll get your room key for you."

He reached for a rather large key with a number tag and told her which floor it was on, Elona thanked Leonard for his help.

She made her way to the elevator, which was also antiquated in a 19th century style, and rode it to the floor her room was supposed to be on. As she made her way down the Gothic yet lavish hallway with numbered hotel rooms, the rather ghoulish Shrunken Heads hanging from the door knobs actually spoke out loud over and over as she walked by,

"Do not disturb."

It continued to impress her how detailed the hotel was in its theme and how interactive everything was. So save for her experience in the lobby and small trouble with checking in, she might actually have a good time here. Maybe she'll even stay here longer than she usually did anywhere else so far in Europe, though she had her reasons for leaving anywhere she went so soon.

She couldn't help but think that despite humankind's progress in science and social changes, there were still those kinds of people who found it hard to look past outdated controversies because of a person's condition, and she had met her share of narrow minded people.

She finally found the right room number with its own Shrunken Head doorknocker.

As she got the key close to the knob to unlock her room, it said loudly, "Do not disturb."

"Sheesh, and I'm not even in the room yet," she mumbled.

"Excuse me, didn't you hear what I said, Lady? I said 'Do not disturb,'" it repeated very insistently.

"You can say it after I'm in my room, okay?" she said a bit annoyed.

She put the key in the lock, but it wouldn't turn.

She took it out, looked at the room number and the tag on the key with confusion and said to herself, "This is the right number. Must be a little defective."

She reinserted the key, but it still wouldn't unlock the door. She withdrew it again as she grumbled,

"Maybe they should've updated to key cards like the rest of the world around here."

Before she inserted the key again for a third time, hoping it was the charm, the door opened to reveal a rather grumpy looking purple faced hag with a bulbous and wart covered nose. She looked at Elona less than pleased as she said in a very husky voice,

"Is there something you want, Honey?"

Giving a confused look, Elona could only say, "Uh, I'm sorry, isn't this my room? I have the key to this room."

She showed the hag her key, who looked at it less than impressed as she said, "Sorry, Honey, as you can see, this room is taken. You'll have to take it up with the front desk."

The hag closed the door, obviously ending the conversation leaving a baffled Elona standing alone in the hallway to stare at the door.

"I told you. Do not disturb," the Shrunken Head said in a smug tone.

Elona only grunted in frustration as she was getting really peeved with all of these continuous inconveniences and complications just to get a room.

She was back down in the lobby and the front desk before the bell fully dinged, and she gave Leonard an irritated look as she tried to say calmly,

"Excuse me, but you gave me the wrong key. That room's already occupied by a now grouchy purple faced woman. I'm really tired, please, can you fix this?"

Leonard gave a worried and apologetic look as he stammered, "Oh, really? I'm sorry, let me see."

Leonard tried working at the keyboard again, but he became so nervous he lost sight of what he was doing and the computer system he did something he did not intend, and brought up a blue screen with words the bellhop didn't understand.

"I'm sorry, Miss Parker," he said, "The computer's gone all weird again. Don't worry, I'll get it fixed. Oh, boy."

Elona could only face palm herself as she watched the wart covered monster struggle with the computer.

"Okay, I really don't want to be one of those people, but where is your supervisor? I think you clearly need more training with your computer registry," she said.

"Uh, he's uh…," Leonard stammered, not wanting to face his boss's disappointment.

Elona then said a little too loudly, "Look, I know it's not really your fault, but I really just need a room to rest, there's something very important I have to do before going to bed."

She was starting to feel very tired and a bit nauseous, perhaps it was lingering after effects from the taxi ride or she had not yet adapted to a new time zone, which was always a difficult part during her entire European travels.

She just knew it was a small part of her condition flaring up again.

Dracula and his family had overheard Elona's complaining from clear across the lobby, but before Dracula could do anything about it, a suit of armor guide rushed right up to him, and with an at attention salute reported,

"Sir, there's an emergency that requires your immediate attention."

Dracula looked conflicted for a moment, then Johnny said, "Don't worry, Drac, I got this. You go take care of that one."

"And I'm going to take Dennis back upstairs," Mavis said.

"Aww, Mommy, I don't wanna," the little red headed boy moaned, but then they started to chase each other as bats back to their private apartment in the hotel.

Dracula was gone in a quiet swish of shadow as Johnny went up to the front desk and said,

"Hey, how's it goin'? I'm Johnny, the Human Relations Coordinator for the hotel. What's the problem?"

Elona explained the situation as calmly as she could, although she was bit surprised to see how young looking this hotel manager employee looked. Johnny then went behind the reception desk to take a closer look at the problem and had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

"Let me give Clifton a ring," Johnny said, "He's the hotel's resident tech expert."

Shortly after, a very nerd looking zombie wearing round glasses that made his dead set eyes look bigger than they really were was at the computer checking on the problem and set to fixing them.

Being a bit of a tech enthusiast himself because of social media, Johnny noticed one or two anomalies with the hotel's new computer system, too.

"Huh, that's weird," he said with suspicion, "Looks like someone tried to rearrange the files and mucked it up. Well, Clifton can fix that in no time, anyway, let's get you an awesome room, Elona."

Johnny then got out a rather over sized dark maroon book from one of the back shelves as he said, "I know this is old fashioned, but the boss is very old school, so this does come in handy when the system gets all wonky."

It was an old looking registry record book, and as Johnny looked through it he found Elona's registration. He then looked through another just as large file book and found her an available room. He then set to looking for the right key, but noticed something odd with them.

"Huh, another weird thing. It looks like all the keys got their tags mixed up. Drac won't be happy with that, but I can tell him later."

Johnny then looked through several drawers with emergency keys and found the right one for Elona's new room.

Feeling relieved, Elona apologized to Leonard for her unpleasant behavior realizing now it was not all his fault.

Johnny handed her the key and asked if she would like him to help her with her luggage.

"Actually, that would be nice, thanks, Johnny," she said, "If just to make sure it's the right one, I don't want to get another already occupied room, like with a grouchy werewolf or something who'll eat me for disturbing his nap."

Elona giggled at her joke, though Johnny smiled as he quirked an eyebrow as he knew Wayne would never do that.

On the third floor, they made it to Elona's new room and this time the key worked and the room was unoccupied. It was one of the more common rooms in the hotel though it still had that Gothic and mysterious feel to it, like it was truly something from the pages of the original Bram Stoker novel. It had a single comfortable plush queen sized bed, a vanity table, an ornately carved wooden desk and chair, and a single bathroom, the phone was styled like a human skull, a stag's antlered skull hung in one corner, and the side table lamp gave off a warm glow that still seem to enhance the mysterious feel of the room. The flat screen TV and outlet for computer access were the newest additions.

"Now this is more like it," Elona said, "Thanks again, Johnny."

"No prob," he said in an easy going way, "Happy to help, if you need anything else. Catch ya around, Elona."

Johnny left with a friendly wave good-bye, and Elona finally got comfortable in her new temporary home as she took off her shoes and flopped onto the bed. She laid there for a few minutes to try and relax, then heard her stomach rumbling as she finally realized how hungry she was getting.

She looked through her carryon sack and found the packaged food she bought in the nearby town before coming to the hotel and got ready to eat it as her dinner, but first she needed to take her medicine.


	4. Chapter 4 First Meetings

First Meetings

"That's your big plan?" snarled the little bat creature, "To play around on some damn machine boxes while I messed up the key tags? I wonder if it's even worth it to team up with you if that's all the trouble we're going to do."

"No, no, my little friend," Quasimodo said amusedly, shrugging off any insult he felt, "Far from it, zat was only ze first step. Patience, Bela, I know you are eager for true destructive fun. But first, we must start small, creating a few annoyances and inconveniences for all ze guests, enough so ze humans start not wanting to come to ze hotel. But zat won't be enough, I promise you we'll do more damage zat'll make _Monsuir_ Dracula look like a complete incompetent fool, but not just ze physical kind to buildings and property, but also his 'shining' reputation."

Bela scowled at this, because this was not what he had hoped for or what he had in mind for revenge at all. Quasimodo read this clearly on the Bat Demon's beastly face as he continued,

"I know you are itching for action, my friend, but zink of it zis way, ze longer you wait for it ze more your eagerness and hunger for it will grow, which in turn shall make it all ze sweeter in ze end."

Bela thought about this, and while he hated to admit it he knew Quasimodo was right in a way. So while he will continue to go along with Quasimodo's insufferable long term plan, he will only on one condition that must be done very, very soon.

"Fine," Bela snarled, "But I want my size restored as soon as possible, by that traitorous Vlad or pathetic Dracula, I don't care, I just want it done soon if not now."

Quasimodo smiled malevolently as he said, "Agreed."

In another part of the hotel, a woman awoke from a sound sleep and stretched awake as she finally felt refreshed.

For nearly two days, Elona just stayed in her room to allow her biorhythms to adjust to the new time zone as well as a need to be alone for a while. She mostly spent her time doing some personal exercises and watching TV, though the hotel's selection of channels and movies to watch in her opinion left much to be desired. She turned to her laptop/tablet for entertainment with her personal selection from a streaming account or even YouTube, or occasional reading from downloaded ebooks.

She also had finally eaten the last of her packaged food and ordered room service at least once to keep from going hungry.

She finally decided to see more of the hotel, as her curiosity and adventurous spirit have also been refreshed and she knew she would go bug crap crazy if she stayed in isolation in her room for too long.

She dressed in slim fold up jeans and a long sleeved navy blue shirt, grey slip on tennis shoes, and pulled her long brunette hair into a ponytail, and soon made her way back down to the lobby to take a better look at what sort of activities the hotel offered, the itineraries and brochures were at the front desk.

She noticed a few of them were quite strange, but interesting as they too carried over with the resort's monster theme, such as a spin class with a giant spider, which she will skip as she doesn't really care much for spiders. There were also tennis lessons with a real werewolf for an instructor, which might be fun so Elona will set that aside for later. There were also the spa and the gym, which offered health classes and activities with a giant Fly while beauty treatments in the spa offered things such as a classic mud bath and a more weird sounding massage by a giant squid. The weirdest activities she read about so far had to be Bingo with another old gremlin lady and a trivia game with floating brains. For now she'll skip those.

Elona decided she needed to relax and decided to get a classic manicure/pedicure in the hotel spa, even by monster beauticians, which to her was a start and good enough to be somewhere between normal and weird.

It seemed pretty lucky for her the spa wasn't overbooked for now, nor was it too crowded when she got there as they got her an appointment in ten minutes.

As she was shown to a reclining seat for her treatment and to relax, it intrigued and freaked her out a bit how the spa looked to be designed almost like a Medieval dungeon, complete with what might have been torture devices, such as an Iron Maiden or a table with wheels and ropes for stretching, but were really just more stylized spa equipment and the guests in the them looked really relaxed and content.

The seat she was shown to was surprisingly comfortable as it looked like a reclining spike chair, but the spikes were actually made of some kind of plush foam that both massaged and adjusted to her body shape, and she was immediately comfortable.

It wasn't long before her manicurist arrived, a strange yet familiar looking kind of monster with pale gray blue skin with stitches, a beehive hair style with a white streak, and she had a very voluptuous curved figure shown off by her short black skirt and fuzzy pink sweater shirt, and matching pink and black striped head band. Her attractive face with covered in a bit too much make up, she wore very large hoop earrings, and her bright pink nails were almost more claw like for being so long.

"Hello, Darling," she said with a very nasally and high pitched voice, but was still friendly nonetheless, as she held out her clawed and stitched hand, which Elona took politely if a bit reluctantly, it felt cold and smooth and yet a bit leathery, "I'm Eunice. Ready for a mani-peti and for you to feel one step closer to being fabulous?"

"Yes, thank you, Eunice," Elona said, "My name's Elona, and I'm just here to relax and have some me time."

"Better that, Darling," Eunice said as she took Elona's right hand and started filing one of her nails, her hands surprisingly nimble despite her own long nails, "You're just in time for girl time." She gestured to other women near her, both different monsters.

"Salutations and many welcomes," said the monster to Elona's left with an accented voice with clear high class to it, yet friendliness. She was a mummy with eerie glowing green eyes, an ornate headdress and matching shoulder piece, like she might have been an Egyptian princess or even a queen, and she had the most pronounce and seductive hourglass figure Elona had ever seen, even for her own slim and lithe muscular figure. She laid back in her own chair while a long squid looking tentacle massaged her feet.

"I'm Nefertina, but you may call me Nefi."

"Hi," Elona said with a polite smile, impressed with another monster costume, though a bit uncomfortable to now have company as she didn't really want to talk to anyone.

"This is my good friend, Wanda," Eunice introduced the other woman to Elona's right.

"Hello, Elona," Wanda said with a friendly smile, a very realistic looking female werewolf, a pregnant one nonetheless if Elona was judging correctly by her rather large belly. Wanda was relaxing with another squid tentacle giving her a massage as well.

"And I'm Carrol," said a voice from thin air, making Elona look around in confusion.

"Right here," it said again, Elona looking to the seat next to Wanda where there seemed to be a floating pair of pink horn rimmed glasses, with dozens of curlers where hair should have been, and a pearl necklace.

"Hi," said Elona, a bit amazed at the special effects for this 'invisible woman.' Somehow it was a costume designed to bend light around an entire human figure.

"Have we met before?" Wanda suddenly asked as she gave Elona a strange look, making her very uncomfortable.

"No, I don't think so," Elona quickly stammered out, "I might just have one of those faces."

She gave a bit of a nervous laugh.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie," Wanda said, "It's just for a moment, you reminded me of someone I knew."

"Yeah," Eunice breathed in agreement as she started on another finger nail, also giving Elona the same look, "You almost look a little like…" Wanda gave Eunice a look, "Well, it doesn't matter, you're clearly not her."

"Who?" Elona was suddenly interested in who these women though she was.

"We're sorry, but we try not to talk about it out of respect for our friend," Wanda said with sadness in her voice.

"Oh, okay," Elona said with sympathy, "I understand, I lost someone close to me, too."

"Well, no more depression," said Eunice, "We're here to have a good time, right? So, Elona, where you from? What brings a nice and pretty human girl like you to the now famous Hotel Transylvania?"

"Well, I'm originally from Chicago," she said, "But I've been traveling Europe for several months now."

"Like our friend, Johnny?" Wanda asked.

"You mean the guy with wild red hair and wears a garish yellow and orange shirt, talks like a California surfer?"

"That's Johnny," confirmed Eunice with a smile, "He told us stories of traveling the world before coming here, and boy were they exciting. I bet you've got some stories to tell."

"Yeah, I guess I do," Elona said with a small smile, though she was just being polite as it was only half-hearted.

"It would be delightful to hear them," Nefi said.

"Well, um…I'm not sure…" Elona said low.

"Oh, that's alright, Elona," Wanda said reassuringly, "We understand, you don't really know us and you're probably still getting used to being around monsters like most humans. Well, not only are Eunice and I best friends, I'm also a children's activities instructor here at the hotel for the many kinds of children that come here. I supposed it's obvious, I just adore children."

Wanda rubbed at her belly with a dreamy look.

"First one?" asked Elona.

"No, I've lost count. I've had dozens of pups though."

"So your husband can't keep his paws off you, can he?" Elona teased with a laugh.

"No, he can't," Wanda laughed.

"You're lucky, Frank and I can't have kids," Eunice said with a bit of sadness but acceptance nonetheless.

"Neither can I, such a pity really," said Nefi.

"If I had kids, no one would see them," Carrol said.

Elona suddenly became uncomfortable again as a silence built, the other women clearly waiting for her to continue the conversation but she was blanking on words. Finally she just said,

"I don't think I should have kids, I don't think I even can."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Wanda said with sympathy, "But why do you think that? You look like a pretty healthy human woman to me."

Elona just tensed as she fidgeted in her chair, an apprehension grew within her. Costumes or not, what if these people saw her as an abomination as well because of her condition?

"That's personal," she said in a low voice.

One of them was about to ask why when Eunice said, "The closest to a daughter I've had was Mavis, such a good kid. She and Johnny are lucky to have Zinged. And now they have little Dennis."

Eunice, being the closest to Elona, must have seen her discomfort and had tried to divert the conversation away from her. Elona would have thanked her when there came a sudden screech not too far away.

One of the heater chairs where another human woman was getting a hair treatment had sparked wildly and now started to smoke, as well as the poor woman's hair, and then nearby another chair with a female gremlin sparked and smoked making her hair smoke, too.

Murmurs and worried mumbles spread throughout the spa now, worrying the small group of Elona's would be new acquaintances.

"What the hell is going on?" Eunice nearly shrieked as another chair sparked and smoked, startling the clients who tried to relax in them.

"Aah!" Carrol screamed as her own chair suddenly did the same, making her get out quickly.

For some reason, Elona chose that moment to leave them and finish her treatment at a later time.

"Elona, wait," Eunice called after her, "I'm not done, I've only just gotten started."

"I'm sorry, Eunice, maybe later," Elona said a bit harder than needed, "Thanks anyway."

"What's her hurry?" Wanda asked.

"Did I say something wrong?" wondered Eunice, but then she became concerned for the other clients with the smoking hair, and all of them wailed or gave off angered rants of their hair now being ruined.

Gustav, the manager of the spa, was less than happy with this electrical inconvenience and unhappy clients.

Elona ran into a nearby bathroom to wash up, though she was a bit disappointed with herself for running out like that, but she just didn't like the conversation she had with those strangers, and while she thought they were being nice enough it also felt they were prying too much. She also felt sorry for them and the sudden electric surge their equipment suddenly had.

She splashed some cold water onto her face, immediately feeling a little better, but as she tried to turn off the faucet, the water just kept going. The next thing she knew all the other sinks started to have water flow quickly and the toilet stalls started to over flow as well making any occupants exit quickly with startled yelps and shrieks.

The women's bathroom was quickly evacuated, as well as the nearby men's bathroom as Elona saw overflowing water flood through. Dozens of people, humans and monsters alike, yelled and shouted anger and irritation at the sudden plumbing issue.

Elona was among the loudest as she shouted, "What the hell is this, the Poltergeist?!"

She just tried to push her way through the swelling crowd and nearly had someone or something run into her.

"Excuse me, watch where you're going," she growled.

"Pardon moi, _Madamoiselle_ ," said a French accented ruff voice.

Elona looked down to a see another weird looking costume, but this one looked the most human so far if very deformed with a think hunchback, a very long noise on a round face with bloodshot yellow eyes radiating an inner craziness, and salt and peppered hair on both sides of a bald round head shaped almost like horns, and he wore a plumber's uniform, clearly here to fix the problem with the bathrooms.

"Uh, that's okay," Elona said a bit nervously, something about this actor made her even more uncomfortable than the women in the spa, "I should really watch where I'm going, too."

"'Tis nothing to worry about, _Madamoiselle_ ," the hunchback said pleasantly as he took her hand and lightly kissed it, making Elona feel like it made her skin crawl, "Zese zings happen."

"Mr. Ghouligan! Quasimodo!" Shouted an angered man's voice from the crowd and the little hunchbacked man said,

"Til we meet again, _Madamoiselle_. _Au Revoir_." He then limped quickly to the man who called him, but all Elona saw was the back of a black cape with a high collar worn by a tall figure, next to who stood a zombie looking janitor.

She stood for a few moments longer at the growing crowd and the problems with the spa and bathrooms, but decided there was nothing she could do to help at the moment. All she wanted was to relax and do something enjoyable.

She decided to check out the gym and see about taking an aerobics class, but soon heard the gym had been shut down do to equipment breaking down around the same time as in the spa.

While Elona groaned at this, she decided she needed to relax and returned to her room for the afternoon to keep her blood pressure down. Looking through the brochures again, she decided to catch a magic show performed by an aquatic semi-squid like monster called Harry Three-Eye in the hotel lounge.

The show was entertaining enough if a bit gory at times, and Elona got a bit squeamish from it, but the magician was actually quiet talented and did tricks Elona had never seen before and applauded along with the rest of the audience.

The next act up was a stand up act by an albino Gillman introduced as Marty. But since he only spoke in inaudible blubbers, most of the humans didn't understand a word of his alleged jokes, though all the monsters broke out laughing.

A gargoyle waiter finally came up to Elona's table and asked in a very professional and genteel fashion if she would like to order anything, and while she'd had a couple of virgin drinks, she finally realized she was getting hungry.

She looked at the menu, which had a lot of interesting selections but couldn't really decide what she wanted. The waiter then offered to bring her a plate of samples, and Elona accepted eagerly, feeling once more adventurous.

The waiter soon returned with a silver platter of some very unusual looking food samples that somehow seemed alive as they all snarled and growled and bounced up and down on the platter.

Elona gave an unsure twisted look at the food samples, and asked the waiter, "Are you sure about this? Is this even real food?"

"Absolutely, Ma'am," the gargoyle waiter said positively in his unbroken genteel fashion, "These are samples of only a few of our finest dishes."

He stood there proudly and waited for her to try the strange living food, how they were able to make it move was still an amazing effect.

She tried to take a sample of bouncing food from the platter but it evaded her fingers with an impressive small jump, she tried to grab another sample but this one jumped high enough and bit her finger hard with tiny sharp teeth like needles.

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" she shouted in pain and outrage as she suddenly stood up, drawing a few stares to her and the suddenly startled gargoyle waiter.

For some reason, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for Elona, and there was once a time she wouldn't have cared so much about 'sweatin' the small stuff,' but her life had been far from perfect since her ex's betrayal, and she just seemed to take out her anger on almost anyone for the wrong reasons.

"That does it!" she shouted at the now cowering gargoyle waiter, "Where's your manager, I demand to speak with your manager, immediately!"

"He's…I-I…," the gargoyle could only stutter in growing apprehension.

Elona just glared at the tuxedoed stone gray creature, not even noticing a new presence appear behind her as though out of thin air.

"Is there a problem here?" asked a raspy male voice thick with a rich Romanian accent, clear with authority and an air of Eastern European aristocracy to it.

"I'll say there is," Elona hissed as she whirled around quickly to face the owner of the voice, "I…"

Time seemed to come to a complete halt as she looked up and locked eyes with the man in front of her. It was the Dracula costumed man she believed to be the hotel manager she had seen doing a meet and greet in the lobby, and then at the flooding of the spa bathrooms. Now all of a sudden like a bolt from the blue, here he was in front of her and she saw the role fit him perfectly.

Now that she had a better look at him, he was pretty tall, about 6'4'' or 6'5'' as he was clearly taller than her at 5'6'' and his healthy figure was slim, wiry, and graceful with broad shoulders and chest; his face was long with sharp features such as a long sharp chin and high cheek bones and a sharp, curved hawk like nose upon skin that was like pale polished marble, all which told of a clear ancient noble upper class heritage. His raven black hair was slicked back with nary a hair out of place and formed a slight widow's peak upon his high forehead. He wore a long nobleman's cape of an expensive ebony black material with a high collar and royal purple inner lining, beneath which he wore all sleek black late nineteenth century clothes, including a silk shirt, vest jacket, ascot tie with an onyx jewel, silk dress pants, and sharp dress shoes, and he clearly carried himself with an air of nobility and prestige.

While Elona somehow took all of this in, her eyes locked with his which had to be the most stunningly amazing deep blue she had ever seen, like a pair of icy blue sapphires that radiated a deep 'soulfulness,' a blue that nearly put Paul Newman's to shame.

She was just mesmerized by those eyes.

For Dracula, he had decades of experience in dealing with difficult guests to his lavish hotel, though the allowance of humans was still a new and recent development and had proved a bit difficult at times than experience with monster guests. He had needed a break from the stress of overseeing the repairs to the somehow damaged spa and gym equipment and their flooded bathrooms, and decided to catch one of Harry Three-Eye's shows with his family with him for moral support.

Whatever this human had to complain about, he still had an obligation to see it resolved and his guest happy in the end.

Yet this became the furthest thing from his mind when his eyes met those of the human woman and he was all but speechless as he drank in the details of her looks. He had seen this same human woman around the hotel, in fact she was the same one who had reminded him of his late wife the moment he saw her walk in a few short days ago and he was beginning to understand why.

She had been complaining about one thing or another, mostly small things that got solved quickly enough, but now that he was seeing her up close and personal, it was like living in a precious dream from a nearly forgotten memory.

For a moment he once again thought he was looking at his beloved Martha, and though she had a slight resemblance to his late wife, the subtle differences were in her face which had a more pinkish Caucasian skin tone with a bit of a tan instead of a lovely flawless pale alabaster, and her hair was a deep medium brown color that was like both fire and earth and straight instead of a luscious midnight black and wavy, and her figure was not only a slim hourglass shape, but healthy and strong with a lithe muscular build of a long legged dancer, strangely accentuated by her comfortable and casual modest clothes.

Yet what stopped Dracula in his tracks and made his undead yet alive heart stop beating for eternal moments were this human woman's eyes, a pair of wide almond shaped eyes a deep azure sky blue he thought he would never see again. They held a wonder and mystery of a starry night, eyes that clearly held something deep and binding; life, passion, and beneath that he also saw something else that drew them; pain.

And loneliness.

In this moment, eternity stretched out they saw into each other's souls as two hearts began to beat as one.

In that moment, a bright magenta sparkle glimmered and flashed in their eyes.

They had Zinged.

Yet it has always been believed you only Zing once in your life, there is only one soul mate for everyone.

Yet, could it be, with a lifetime as long as one as Count Dracula had, maybe, just maybe, it is possible to have a second chance with a new kind of Zing.

Across the room, staring along with everyone else in curiosity, Dracula's family, daughter Mavis, son-in-law Johnny, and grandson Dennis, watched with wry smiles on their faces as they saw the moment pass between Vampire and human.

"Is that, like, what I think it is?" Johnny said with a wide goofy smile on his youthful face.

"It must be," Mavis agreed, smiling just as widely.

"Er, I…uh," Dracula stammered for a moment, then cleared his dry throat, "Ahem, what seems to be the problem, Miss?"

"I…I, uh," Elona stammered, having gone speechless at the sight of the hotel manager and what she suddenly felt. And it both invigorated her with excitement and filled her with fear.

He gave her small smile as he waited patiently for Elona to answer, yet words escaped her as her mind went blank.

She finally gathered as much of her thoughts as she tried to say,

"Uh, I just wanted to try some food samples and the food bit me. Me. It's supposed to be the other way around. Why did it bite me?"

Dracula looked at the platter still held by the now timid gargoyle waiter, and saw pieces of monster food samples still bouncing up and down as they gave off adorable snarls, growls, and high pitched shrieks.

"Oh, that's just the tasting method," he said casually.

"The 'tasting method'? Really? Are you kidding me? Does that mean the food has to taste me before I can taste it? What kind of twisted logic is that?" Elona began to argue, her tone rising a bit.

Dracula frowned, seeing where this might be going.

"Okay, okay," he said, a bit annoyed, "If you'd like something that doesn't bite you back, I'll see you get something that doesn't bite you back."

Drac then spoke to the gargoyle watier, who looked at his master with an at the ready stance in apprehension and submission.

"Bill, get this lady another tray of samples," he ordered, "and make sure it gets the biting out of its system before bringing it."

"Yessir," Bill said quickly with nervousness and even quicker flew back to the kitchen.

"Thanks," Elona said politely, a bit unsure of how to feel about the situation.

Drac then gentlemanly gestured to her seat, and she graciously sat back down, knowing the costumed host was at least trying.

"May I join you, Miss…?" he asked courteously.

"Yes, okay. I don't see why not," she said a bit shyly, suddenly feeling very nervous and bashful, her face blushed a rosy pink, "And it's Parker, Elona Parker."

"Elona," Dracula said as though it were the chime of a crystal bell, or a renewing breath of life, "Very beautiful."

"Thanks."

"I am curious, though," he continued, "You could've ordered from the new more human friendly menu, though you're not the first human to get bitten and tasted by our regular food."

Elona pushed some loose silky brown hair behind an ear, feeling embarrassed and bashful at once.

"Well, I supposed that's my fault," she admitted, "I wanted to be adventurous, I always want to try something new when I come to a new place, though I have to be careful about it."

"Nothing wrong with that," Drac shrugged.

"Thanks, but it has gotten me into trouble sometimes so I need to be more careful in the future. So, uh…how exactly do you do it, with the food I mean, it's an impressive special effect, Mister…?"

Dracula raised a dark eyebrow at such a strange question and could only answer,

"Dracula. And it's Count, actually. Count Dracula. And that's how the food's always been made at my hotel."

Elona looked at the man with a slight puzzled look, but then just decided to humor her gracious host as he seemed take his role seriously enough to make it believable. After all, the monster themed hotel pulled off its Disneyland feel quite well and tourists loved that kind of thing.

"Okay. Count," she said with an amused if slightly awkward smile, "So, I saw you take a picture with a couple of families the other day, it was adorable."

"Thank you."

"Do you go around teasing your guests saying "I'm vant to suck your blood, bleh, bleh-bleh'?" she teased as she imitated his accent.

Dracula could only frown deeply at this, feeling very insulted. Again, another human and that ridiculous saying. Where the bat hell did it come from? And for that matter where did Mavis get it in the first place?

"I do not say 'bleh, bleh-bleh'," he said in an annoyed hard edged voice.

"Okay, okay, I'm just messing with you," she laughed.

"And I don't drink human blood," he continued, "I haven't for decades. It's fatty and I never know where it's been."

"Excuse me," Elona shot out, "I take very good care of myself, I exercise and eat a strict diet."

"Really? Then why order from a menu that isn't part of your usual human diet?"

"Like I said," she said, now feeling defensive and embarrassed, "I was feeling adventurous."

Dracula couldn't really blame her for that, as plenty of human guests had done it before and Dracula did his best to minimize injury and complaints.

He was about to say something else when Bill the waiter appeared, barring another silver tray of fresh human friendly food samples, his posture professional with pomp and circumstance with an underlying fearful apprehension for his performance in front of his master.

"Ah, here are new samples for you to try," he said as he stood up, "Enjoy. Now if you'll excuse me."

He walked away stiffly with a soft rustle of his long black cape, leaving a slightly insulted and confused Elona behind.

From the other side of the lounge, Johnny and Mavis could only frown as Mavis said, "So much for that possible Zing."

"Maybe we just read too much into it," Johnny said with a frown.

"Yeah, maybe."

Yet little Dennis saw something interesting there, and if he could convince his good friend Winnie to help him, Papa Drac might not need to be so lonely anymore.

From above in the shadows of the lounge, once more two pairs of malevolent eyes watched Dracula closely, and what they saw was repulsive to them but also very interesting.

"Hmm," hummed Quasimodo, "How interesting."

"It's disgusting," spat Bela.

"Wi, indeed it is. But perhaps this particular human could prove useful to our plans in ze future, no?"

Quasimodo smiled sinisterly, the wheels turned in his head smooth and sharp like icicles.


	5. Chapter 5 The Zing Bang Theory

The Zing Bang Theory

 **Author's note** : This chapter is partially inspired by an unpublished Hotel Transylvania comic strip by Neckmouth, which can be found on Neckmouth's page.

"Are you sure about this?" Murray questioned, thinking this was a very bad idea.

"One hundred percent," Griffin said confidently, "I still own him for that bacon thing a few years, and that purple nurple last month." If he were visible, they would see him rubbing his chest at the uncomfortable memory. "How did he even know where they were in the first place?"

"You're still holding a grudge for the bacon?" said Frank, "I'd thought you'd go after poor Wayne here for that, it was his kids that attacked you."

Wayne gave Frank a glare, though he couldn't help but smile.

"But it was Drac who gave it to me," Griffin reminded them, "Besides, maybe this'll teach him a thing or three, especially about throwing his own grandson off a rickety old tower just to get him to fly."

His friends all agreed, but were still not sure about what Griffin had talked them into taking part in.

If they went along with this, there was no turning back.

In his private office, Dracula was alone with his thoughts and paced, literally, all around his office.

It had been another two days since Dracula had met the strange woman named Elona, and for some reason he could not get her out of his mind. Her eyes, her face, even her voice. She haunted him. But, why did she? She was a Human for darkness sake, so why did he think about her all the time now? Whatever it was he felt when their eyes locked it couldn't have been a Zing, Martha was his Zing. But that was just it, she looked so much like his Martha, except for…

He just tried to concentrate on work, but his thoughts just kept wandering back to this Elona Parker. But why? She had insulted him and she was obviously very obnoxious and condescending. And adventurous, she had said, and she did have moments of being nice and polite, adorably bashful, and she did seem fiery…

He shook his head in frustration as he tried to banish these thoughts from his mind, but they persisted.

For some time, maybe hours, he paced around his office, even up the walls and the ceiling as he tried to understand why this human woman now bothered him so much.

As though just to irritate him more, there then came a hard knocking at the polished door, to which he shouted irately,

"What!? Who is it?"

A pregnant silence was the only answer until a voice said,

"It's me, Frank, and the guys, Drac. There's something we gotta show you."

"If it isn't an emergency, it can wait," Dracula growled.

Frank then opened the door and looked up to see Dracula gracefully pacing on the ceiling, and Frank knew his Vampire friend well enough he only did this when something was greatly bothering him.

"What're you doing up there, Drac?" Frank asked, "What's got you so hot and bothered it drives you up the walls and ceiling?"

Dracula only glared at Frank for a moment before coming down in a quiet swish like a shadow. He couldn't bring himself to tell Frank about the human woman occupying his thoughts now, so he said in a rather hollow way,

"I don't know, Frank. It's all the problems that have been springing up lately, the flooding of the gym and spa bathrooms, and the equipment burning out. Johnny even told me of problems at the reception desk earlier this week, but he took care of it."

"And you took care of that other stuff, like you always do and the gym and spa are as good as new now," Frank said reassuringly, "So what's bothering you about it?"

Now that Dracula thought about it, there was something peculiarly off about these supposed accidents that have happened, but they had taken a back seat to his continued musing about this Elona Parker.

"I don't know, Frank, it may just be strange coincidences, or the staff is still getting used to human guests and technology the hotel now uses. Then again, they could just be getting lazy if they become too reliant on…"

That thought hit him like a sudden bang as he stopped in his tracks.

"That's it!" he nearly yelled, "If the staff is getting lazy, I'll have to remind them I won't tolerate incompetence."

"On the bright side," Frank said, "At least it might not be sabotage."

Dracula froze at this, because that was an even worse thought and he now began to get suspicious.

"C'mon, Frank," he said, "There's work to do."

He made his way down the hall with Frank following behind but then he said, "I'll catch up with you later, Drac, there's something I gotta do first.'

Dracula's suspicions grew, but these were different from the weird stuff and accidents to his hotel.

Off to a nearby corner, Frank saw a pair of floating glasses appear and asked him, "So, what did you say to him?"

"Not much, he's getting suspicious about the weird accidents lately," Frank said.

"Well, they weren't our doing, we'd never go that far. Well, whatever," Griffin sighed, "Just as long as we get him into the right place."

"I'm still not sure about this, Griff," Frank said worried, "I'm worried about what he'll do to us as payback."

"We'll deal with that later," Griffin said, then snickered, "Just get him into position."

A few short minutes later, the Drac Pack, Isadora, two zombie bellhops, and the janitors Mr. Ghouligan and Quasimodo Wilson gathered in the lobby. Dracula paced in a graceful quiet stride as a shadow with his cape cocooning him as he closely eye those gathered before him, most of them with patient looks, while one or two looked worried. Griffin, being invisible, had an obvious smirk no one saw.

"You all know about the accidents in the gym and spa the other day," he finally said, the employees nodded, though no one noticed Quasimodo tense a bit.

Dracula continued, "I don't know how or why they happened, but I want to make it clear that even though we now allow humans as guests, I still expect excellence at this hotel, and everyone to work their best to prevent such accidents and not become too reliant on the new equipment, or become too laid-back."

"Of course not, Your Eminence," said Isadora with a love struck look as she always did to Dracula, like she had hearts dancing in her eyes.

He then got a suspicious scowl as he said, "Of course, if I find out they were deliberate pranks…"

Quasimodo tensed more and gave a quiet gulp, he had to think of a cover story quickly or his plans will be ruined too soon.

But then Dracula was suddenly in the face of one of the zombie bellhops as he growled at him, "Porridge Head, did _you_ eat the key tags again?"

Porridge Head just gave a clueless absentminded look and moan as he pointed to himself. Dracula then opened the zombie's mouth wide open like a lion tamer putting his head in the giant big cat's maw, as though expecting to find the missing key number tags, but all he saw were a few rotting teeth, a chasm of a throat, and drool with bad zombie breath.

He finally let go of Porridge Head as Griffin said to him, "Forget about the weird accidents for a while, Drac, there's an old colleague of mine who wants to show you something."

Dracula dismissed the rest of the staff, while the Drac Pack remained as the Vampire gave the Invisible Man a look as he said, "Oh, really, and who is this colleague of yours and what does he want to show me?"

The other zombie bellhop, Augustus, gestured to a strange silhouette as a figure came into the lobby. He looked like a big gremlin, maybe he was a goblin as he had a large pointed nose with a long handle bar mustache on a round head with grayish green skin, large pointed ears, and he wore a crisp pressed white lab coat and trousers, black rubber gloves, and lab goggles on his head, looking like a clichéd mad scientist.

"Uh, who's that?" Murray asked in a quiet voice with suspicion to Griffin, "I don't remember seeing him at the hotel ever before."

"An old friend of mine from my early days of being invisible," Griffin said in his own low voice as he tried to hold back a tittering laugh, "We even attended college together at one point. I could never pronounce his real name, but I call him PJ, for Practical Joker because he comes up with the best gags. His specialty is tricks in chemistry and sometimes trick puzzle boxes. Now, shush and watch, this is gonna be a blast to watch."

"Guten aben, herr Dracula," he said with a pseudo-German accent.

"And who the bat hell are you?" Dracula moaned, suspicion growing.

"I'm Dr. Von Schelm," the goblin said introducing himself, "Distinguished scientist of the European Monster College of Transylvania."

Dracula raised an eyebrow, as he was aware there was no such college.

"Oh, really?" he questioned, "And how do I know you're a real scientist?"

'Dr. Von Schelm' gave a nervous chuckle as he searched his lab coat for something, and then pulled out a folded piece of paper which he opened and it said 'Real Scientist Certificate.'

Dracula frowned at it, as this 'scientist' was an all too obvious phony and what he was really doing here and why he still needed to determine.

"Okay, you're a real 'scientist,'" Dracula said with obvious sarcasm, "Griffin said you wanted to show me something, so show me already."

"Ja, ja, of course, herr Dracula," Dr. Von Schelm said, "Right over here, please."

He lead Dracula to a far corner of the lobby near the large organ Erik, the Phantom of the Opera musician, played occasionally, and took out a vial from inside his lab coat pocket filled with a dark colored powder.

"What's that, black pepper?" Dracula asked sarcastically, "Are you going to make me sneeze?"

"Nein, nein, herr Dracula," squeaked the goblin 'mad scientist.'

Behind them, Frank was beginning to sweat bullets from worry, but Griffin just rubbed his hands together as he and the others waited, not caring if Dracula had figured out by now this was a prank.

"It's Count," Dracula corrected 'Von Schelm,' "So what is that, and what's it supposed to do?"

"A new kind of firework powder, herr Count," the goblin 'mad scientist' said with bit toothy smile, "Made just for da organ when played, to last longer and glow prettier, but only to a certain tune played on da organ. Come closer, herr Count, and watch."

Dracula came a little closer as he watched with enough suspicion the 'mad scientist' pour the powder into a hidden compartment on the side of the enormous organ. He then went to the three levels of keys and pulled at some of the knobs, then 'Von Schelm,' with a big mischievous grin on his round face, pressed a random key, and several things happened too fast and all at once.

Seconds before an organ key was pressed, Elona emerged from the elevator to make her way to seeing the castle library. Off and on the past couple of days she had hoped to run into the hotel manager, 'Count Dracula,' because she really needed to talk to him, though she understood he was a busy man. Yet for some strange reason she felt a gnawing need and at the same time bodily shaking apprehension at the very thought of talking to him again.

Lost in her own thoughts, she kept wondering why she was always thinking about him now since they first met a couple of days ago. Not only because she worried she unintentionally insulted him, which she didn't mean to do, but because of something else he made her feel now, a feeling she couldn't shake no matter how hard she tried to take her mind off of it. She found herself continually thinking about him, how surprisingly charming he was at first but then seemed like such a stick in the mud for some reason because he couldn't take a joke. Then again, it was the very reason she unintentionally insulted him and the acting role he plays, so she should have known better. And she shouldn't have taken the comment about him not drinking human blood so personally either, as it would explain why his character isn't going around sucking human blood and he's just around being a good host and doing meet and greets for the hotel guests. Yet, there was more to it all than just her worrying about insulting him, it was how she suddenly felt something when their eyes met, like that one moment could define everything and it was now ingrained, in fact permanently burned into her memory, and it made her tingle and shiver all over an excited giddiness and a near spine chilling fear.

She tried to push him out of her mind, but for some reason she couldn't and didn't really want to.

The next thing anybody knew, there came a huge explosion, like a bomb had gone off but there was no fire.

Both humans and monsters, what few there were in the lobby at that moment, gave out startled cries of surprise and fear as the organ's key board exploded to smithereens and various brightly colored powders erupted from the pipes and key board in all directions.

Dracula was blown back, and tried to shield himself with his cape, and he saw Elona walking into the lobby. In a tenth of a second he felt a familiar urge of over protectiveness as he used his trajectory to maneuver towards her, and she heard the explosion and then the flaring swish of material a moment before gasping in surprise at the sight of a flying man and suddenly kneeling down as she was wrapped in his embrace as a shockwave passed.

Silence fell over the lobby as everyone saw the state of the lobby; brightly colored powders now covered and caked everything everywhere, the large organ's three level key board was completely destroyed and exposed its inner workings, while a rainbow of colored powders leaked from sound holes in the organ's music pipes.

Hotel guests looked around in stunned silence, everyone looked like they had walked through a candy rainbow, even the Drac Pack with Griffin covered in so much powder his human form could be seen clearly to what his face might have looked like, his eyeglasses wide eyed in stunned shock.

"Wow!" he gasped, "That worked better than I thought."

Slowly, Elona opened her own eyes to see what had happened, but her gaze once more locked with the intense sapphire blue gaze of the hotel manager and Count, even with his pale face covered in vibrant colors his eyes were the brightest to shine. Their faces were so close, they could have kissed and she felt his embrace was gentle but strong with muscle, and she felt safe with his elegant cape wrapped around her like a safety blanket.

As their eyes locked, once more a bright magenta light sparkled in their eyes, stronger and brighter than before for moments longer.

"Uh…," was all he said before standing up again and helping her up to then stammer, "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"Uh…yeah, thanks," she stammered out, "I'm actually glad to run into you, or maybe you ran into me."

They both chuckled shyly then Elona saw the state of the lobby and said, "Whoa, what happened here? Was this supposed to be some Holi Festival of Colors or something?"

Dracula just arched an eyebrow, not sure what she was talking about. He then just glared at his friends and the goblin, who stood in place caked in colorful powder and looking even more ridiculous with forced goofy smiles on their clearly guilty faces, even on Griffin. They took a few steps away, but with just a look Dracula froze them in place as he said,

"I'll deal with you guys later."

He then heard Elona clear her throat and he realized he still held her in an embrace in his cape and he release her, if a bit reluctantly.

At that moment, Johnny appeared, followed closely by Mavis and Dennis.

"Who-hoa, what happened to the lobby?" he gasped, "Looks like a rainbow threw up in here!"

Dracula, still covered in bright powders, frowned at Johnny's description, no matter how accurate it sounded, and just shook his head and yelled, "Housekeeping!"

The next moment, witches flew all over the lobby on their broomsticks and throwing cleaning spells around, and in no time the lobby was as good as new. With his own magic Dracula cleaned himself of powder in a whirl, impressing Elona with what she thought was another spectacle of special effects.

"Are you okay, Drac?" Johnny asked his father-in-law.

"I'm fine, Johnny," he said as he brushed himself off, "I just…wanted to be sure Miss Parker here didn't get hurt."

"Oh, hey, Elona, it's great to see you," Johnny said with a smile, "How are you enjoying your stay? You're not hurt are you? Nah, Drac obviously saved you."

"Yeah, I'm okay," Elona said, "It's good to see you again, Johnny."

"Oh, hey," Johnny said, "This is my wife and boy, Mavis and Dennis."

"Hi, Elona," Mavis said, "It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Mavis," Elona said politely as she shook Mavis' hand, "Eunice told me about you, how you were the closest thing to a daughter to her."

"Aw, thanks," Mavis said, "That's Auntie Eunice alright."

"And it's nice to meet you, too, Dennis," Elona said sweetly.

"Hi, are you single?" he suddenly asked.

Everyone went silent and wide eyed at that question, not knowing what to say.

Elona gave a nervous laugh as she asked, "Uh, yeah, what makes you ask that?"

Dennis just smiled, making Elona notice his small fangs and she arched an eyebrow at them.

"Oh, nothing," he said slyly, "I just think you're pretty. I think Papa Drac thinks you're pretty, too, because you look like Gramma. Why do you look like Gramma, did you know Gramma?"

"Uhh," Elona just groaned, not knowing what to say.

"Dennis, that's enough," Mavis hushed him as she blushed with embarrassment then said, "Kids, right? I just hope you're okay from that weird explosion. My Dad's friends love to pull pranks on each other, but this…"

"Yeah, that was pretty intense," Elona said a bit awkwardly, "But, the Count here saved me from the shockwave, so, uh, I guess…"

Her eyes then went wide as she got a sudden and strange thought as she stammered, "Wait a minute, whoa, hold on, back the hearse up," she did a rolling gesture with her hands, "Am I hearing this right. 'Dad'?"

Dracula, who had been silent the whole time, tensed a bit and not knowing what to say, while Mavis gave a puzzled look and said,

"Yeah, he's my dad." She nodded to Dracula.

"Okay," Elona said awkwardly, "And Johnny's your husband?"

She pointed to Dennis, then Dracula as she said, "And this adorable little boy is your son, and he called him 'Papa Drac' and he's your dad, which makes him…"

"Yeah," Mavis simply said as though it were obvious.

Elona breathed in sharply through her teeth, and breathed low, "Wow."

Dennis then said, "Mommy, Daddy, doesn't she look like Gramma?"

"Uh, you know what?" Johnny quickly said, "We should go, see you later, Drac, you, too, Elona."

As they walked away, Johnny leaned into Mavis and whispered, "You know it's really weird, I've met Elona once before but now that I think about it. Except for her hair and complexion, there is a slight resemblance to your mom."

Mavis glanced back at Elona as she began to talk to Dracula, and said, "Yeah, it's a little weird."

"Did your mom have any human relatives, maybe?"

"No, at least not that I know of. Both my parents are pure vampires."

"Huh, well they do say everyone's got a twin somewhere in the world, or some people totally unrelated can resemble each other."

Mavis just got a thoughtful look on her pale face as Dennis said, "So, is she Gramma, Mommy?"

"No, Sweetie," she said with a smile, "She's just a nice lady who looks a little like her. But for some reason I'm getting a weird feeling about her."

"Really, Mavy?" Johnny asked, "What kind of weird feeling? Good weird or bad weird?"

"I don't know, just weird." Mavis became lost in thought again and said,

"Maybe we should go see Grandpa Vlad about this woman, there's something strange about her." She smile and continued, "Besides, maybe we weren't wrong about that Zing, do you see how they're looking at each other now?"

They all glanced back at Elona and Dracula, who were taking to each with bashful smiles, almost flirtatiously.

"Well," Elona said shyly, "I guess that makes some sense, the story did tell of Dracula's daughter falling in love with a human boy. I should've guessed Johnny was playing that part."

Dracula quirked an eyebrow but just said as he cleared his throat, "Yes, or course."

Then he asked a bit more charmingly, "What brings you here, Miss Parker? I doubt it was to get covered in colored powder."

"Actually, I was hoping to run into you," she said with a smile, making Dracula raise his black eyebrows again, "I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other day, what I said was inappropriate. Actor or not, you're still a real Count and I insulted you."

"No, no, no, not at all," he said quickly, "Yes, it is insulting humans think I say that, but when you did, I now find how you said it quite amusing."

"Really?" she breathed, and he nodded to her with a smile which she returned.

"Well, um, I…," she stammered, then noticed the still immobilized Drac Pack and goblin mad scientist, "Wow, that's an amazing effect. What's going to happen to them?"

"Don't worry about them," Dracula said to her, "It was all clearly a prank meant for me. I'm just glad you're okay, and no one got hurt."

He smiled at her again and she said as she lightly stroked Dracula's cape between her fingers near his shoulders and said flirtatiously,

"Well, I do have a thing for capes."

His face blushed bright pink and he felt his undead heart start beating so fast it pounded in his ears and might have been seen pounding from his broad chest, and his back tingled as he suddenly felt light headed and dizzy as a swarm of bats fluttered in his stomach.

Elona seemed to smile seductively at him, her eyes like blue crystals that shined with an inner light, hypnotizing him and freezing him in place.

She then lost her smile and awkwardly withdrew her hand and said,

"Sorry. Um, I gotta go. Thanks again."

She then began walking back to the elevators and was gone. Drac then glared at his friends as he unfroze them and stared hard at them with a frown.

But they were hardly intimidated as Murray then teased with a smirk,

"So, Drac, is she someone you like? She's pretty hot."

"I think Eunice told me about her," Frank said, "She said Elona seemed nice enough, but still shy around the girls, and funny, but cut her manicure short for some reason."

"Wanda also said she looked a lot like Martha," Wayne smiled, "Is that why you like her?"

"Shut your fur hole," Dracula growled and gave his friends another intimidating glare that made them shut up, if still smile nervously at him. Beneath it, Dracula began to think of ways for payback.

Meanwhile, two partners in crime made their way to another part of the hotel after having witnessed their latest bout of sabotage to the organ and prank by the Drac Pack.

Quasimodo smirked as he asked Bela, "How much did you put in? Zat was an impressive explosion."

"I don't know and I don't care," the little bat demon growled with pride, "A lot, that's all I know."

"Very good," Quasimodo said with a menacing smile, "You know what I have planned next, but zen we must lay low for a while as _Monsieur_ Dracula is getting suspicious. But when ze time comes, create a distraction and I will do ze rest."

Bela growled again in frustration, but knew he had to be patient.


	6. Chapter 6 A Visit to Vlad

A Visit to Vlad

Somewhere in the deep underbelly of the hotel, a hunchback plumber made his way to a formation of intertwining pipes and came to a corner which served as his personal lair for some years now. He took out a human device, something ridiculous thing called a 'smart phone', though he didn't really see what was supposed to make it _smart_ , and used it to tap into the hotel's new security monitors and used them to watch Bela's movements, waiting for the right moment to set another part of his plan into motion.

He smirked menacingly as he remembered how a few minutes ago he had started it with cutting just a few wires in the power outlet not too far away.

Now he just needed Bela to create a brief distraction for this next sabotage to work, and then he will try the next way of taking over the hotel as he needed to lay low with the sabotaging and damage for a while; the next best thing was undesired gossip about Count Dracula and his competence of being the hotel manager.

Several miles away, deep beyond another untamed forest and deep within steep, craggy and jaggedly dangerous mountain peaks, two little bats carried a shaggy ginger haired man to a hidden cave where the opening looked to be an open maw with stalactites and stalagmites forming deadly looking fangs of a hungry beast and ready to eat anything that passed by too closely.

They landed at the entrance, and the bats changed into a pretty raven haired woman and a curly red headed little boy.

Johnny looked at where they were and asked with some apprehension, "Are you sure this is the right place, Mavis?"

"Yeah," Mavis said with confidence, "This is where Grandpa Vlad has lived for the last few hundred years or so. 666 Gory Cliff Lane, it says so right there on the mail box."

Johnny looked at the beat up and worn mail box near the cave entrance and chuckled nervously, "Yeah, I guess I was expecting another spooky castle, but some how this works, too."

"Still rolling with it, Johnny?" Mavis smiled.

"When have I not."

As they enter the frightening cave, there came a fluttering of large wings and one of the Bat Demon cronies, Vlad's minions and former followers of Bela, intercepted them.

Johnny gave a brief shriek as the Bat Crony said in a guttural voice, "Who goes there? Oh, it's you."

"Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis, Vlad's family," Mavis said with a tough voice and narrowed eyes, "Tell him we're here to visit."

The Bat Demon just grunted angrily at them and flew back into the cave and hung upside down from a stalactite near a stone carved throne in the shadows, where he spoke quietly to its single occupant.

"Holy rabies," Vlad said happily as he leaned out from the shadows of his throne, while the rest of his minions gave low growls or whimpers at the new visitors, "This is an unexpected but pleasant surprise."

The Bat Cronies continued to growl at them, but Vlad silenced them with an intimidating look to shut it.

"Hi, Grampa Vlad," Mavis said with a warm smile.

"Hey, sir," Johnny said respectfully if still easy going.

"Hello, 'Jonafang' was it?" Vlad asked with a raised white wispy eyebrow.

"Actually it's Jonathan, Sir, but please call me Johnny."

"Very well, and enough of this 'sir' business, but I like you show respect, young man. It's Count or Vlad to you."

"Yes, sir, I mean Vlad," Johnny said a bit nervously.

"Hi, Grampa Vlad," Dennis said cheerfully.

"Hello, little fanger, c'mere and sit on your great-vampa's lap," Vlad invited to Dennis as he patted his leg and Dennis flew happily to him and sat on Vlad's lap while torches steadily lit up the cave to bathe it in a warm orange glow.

The Bat Demon hanging by Vlad's throne growled threateningly at them and said, "Little insults to monster kind, shouldn't even be in the same cave with us."

"Carridine, shut your blood hole! Don't you dare insult my family," Vlad gave him a stern warning look.

"So," he said back to his visitors, "What brings you all here, not that I mind visitors, I just wish you'd all come by more often, especially Drac. We lost touch hundreds of years ago, after all."

It was understandable why, but Mavis and Johnny had a silent agreement not to mention it.

"Actually, Dad's kind of the reason why we're here," Mavis admitted.

Vlad got a mixed look of worry and suspicion on his heavily wrinkled pale blue face as he asked, "What's wrong, is he okay? He's not suddenly building a shopping mall next to that hotel of his, is he? 'Cause there's only so much that my old vampire heart will tolerate."

"No, no," Mavis shook her hands, "Even Dad wouldn't go that far, but there is a nice gift shop at the hotel now. No, there's something I need to ask you. Is it possible to Zing more than once in your life?"

Vlad gave her a puzzled look, then got a bit thoughtful as he touched his long chin, "Zing more than once? Hmm."

"You see, Dad kinda met this really nice lady at the hotel and they looked like they had Zinged," she explained.

"Vampire or human?" he asked.

"Well," Mavis said hesitantly a little, "she's human but that's not the weird part."

With Dennis in his arm, Vlad invited them, "Why don't we discuss this over lunch, I can smell it's almost ready. Join me."

Further into the cave, what might have been a kitchen area had a fire going with dead rodents slowly being turned and roasted on it while a Bat Demon slowly turned a wheel, and a few boiling pots, while what might have been an open oven burned a red orange with the smell of fresh baking bread.

"I'm having the boys make my favorite, ratdogs. Want one?" he offered, and opened a boiling pot as he took some tongs and took out a pale boiled vegetable with still wiggling worms in it.

"I got sauerkraut."

"No, thanks, Grampa," Mavis said, "Just pickled lizard legs and blood ketchup for me."

"I want two," Dennis announced.

"And for you, my boy?" Vlad asked politely to Johnny.

"Uh, none for me thanks," Johnny said, "I'm good."

"Too good for a ratdog, huh?" Vlad grumbled.

He then put the worm sauerkraut and what might have been mustard on his ratdog as he said, "So, you're telling me my son might have Zinged again, and with a human no less."

Johnny gave a look but Vlad held up his gnarled hand and said, "I admit I'm still getting used to having humans as relatives now, much less interacting with them without torches and pitchforks and all that rubbish. So I'm taking it a little at a time, alright?"

"Yeah," Johnny said with a smile, "We understand, my family is still getting used to having vampires for in-laws, too, but we're still family."

"Anyway," Vlad continued as he took a large bite of his ratdog, "Tell me about the lucky lady, who is she and why do you ask about another Zing?"

"Well," Mavis began, "Her name's Elona and she seems nice enough but a little temperamental sometimes, because at first she and Dad argued about something about the food or blood health."

Vlad quirked an eyebrow.

"And she looks like Gramma," Dennis happily said.

"Dennis, I was getting to that," Mavis scolded, "But yeah, she looks a lot like my mom, except she has more of a brownish hair color, pink human skin and lips, and isn't quite as tall or slender."

"She's built like brick, I think she works out," Johnny said with a bit of smugness, making Mavis glare at him.

Vlad became thoughtful as he finished off his ratdog, slurping the tail in loudly.

He gave a soft gulp as he said, "Well, I'm no expert, but I do know you can fall in love more than once in your life, I should know, it's happened to me at least three times, one of which was your Grandmother, Mavis. But a true Zing? Oh, now that's something truly special, which your Grandmother was, and might only happen once in a lifetime because it's so rare. But a second Zing? Now that's practically unheard of."

"So, Dad and this Elona may not have Zinged," Mavis said with disappointment, making even Johnny frown.

"No, no, no," Vlad said as he waved a long gnarled finger in the air, "I don't say that, Mavis, I said it's almost unheard of, which isn't a bad thing. In fact, it sounds like it could be so rare that's what makes it even more special."

"Really?" Mavis said with hope.

"Certainly, but I don't think I can tell you why she looks like Martha, that's truly baffling."

"Actually, I've been giving that some thought," Johnny spoke up, "I told Mavis how some people just look a little like each other sometimes, and be unrelated and all that, but for some reason I thought of something else. It might sound crazy, but maybe if she's not related to Martha maybe she's, like, a reincarnation of her."

Both vampires just looked at him with confused looks.

"'Rencarn-what?" asked Mavis, showing she still had some naivety about the world.

"Reincarnation," Johnny said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "It's believed by some cultures that after you die your spirit goes to heaven or a good spirit world or something, while others believe the spirit gets reborn into a new body, it's human again but a totally different kind of person or it's reborn as something else like an animal, or at least that's how I understood reincarnation from class before I dropped out of college. I know, it sounds crazy, right?"

Both vampires again gave thoughtful looks to what Johnny just said and Vlad said, "I don't think that really explains why she looks like Martha, but it's something to consider. How do you know if you're reincarnated or not?"

"I don't know," Johnny just shrugged, "People usually don't remember at all, though it's been said you can remember a past life's memories in dreams or something, I really don't know that must about it."

"Well, reincarnation or not, I'll come by the hotel soon for another visit and have a look at this woman for myself and see if Drac really has Zinged with her. In the meantime, it's just nice to have some company." Vlad took out what looked like a wine bottle and poured a dark red liquid into a brass goblet, and did the same for Mavis and Dennis.

The family visited in the enjoyment of company for the rest of the night.


	7. Chapter 7 Friendly Gossip

Friendly Gossip

While Mavis, Johnny and Dennis went to see Vlad, back at the hotel the person of interest once more walked though the hotel in exploration, but this time her thoughts kept drifting back to the hotel manager again and the strange way he made her feel. Elona took a walk to try and clear her head as the actor and hotel manager made her feel things that were starting to scare her. She hadn't felt anything for a man since that jackass of a boyfriend of hers, Jason, and she had parted ways. Ever since then, she had decided she didn't need a man in her life to make her feel special and needed, she was fine on her own and that is the way it always will be.

This wasn't the first time she almost felt attracted to another man, as other men throughout Europe showed they lived up to their romantic reputations, and she had to find ways of gently letting them down and leave before they found out about her condition.

But, somehow this was different, almost like this Count had been waiting for her for a long time because his eyes made her feel something so familiar and wonderful as the same time she felt intimidated by him.

She also tried to tell herself, even if this was all just pretend fun in some way, Elona did not want to suddenly be like that girl from the Twilight movies as she had ten times more personality and this was real life, not some childish fantasy.

As she walked pass the now restored and working spa again, she unexpectedly began to pass by Eunice who waved her over.

"Elona, sweetheart, there you are," Eunice greeted with her charmingly nasal voice, "I'd hoped to catch you a lot sooner as we never finished your mani-peti."

"Oh, uh," Elona began nervously, "I'm sorry, I was just, uh…"

But Eunice stopped her and just said, "It's okay, darling, I'm the one who should apologize for the girls. We didn't mean to make you feel so uncomfortable. Now let's finish that mani-peti, on me, darling, and I won't take no for an answer."

Elona was a bit reluctant, but found she actually wanted to have it finished and so joined Eunice once more in the spa and was glad just to have someone to talk to.

Elona sat back and relaxed as Eunice seemed to pick up where she left off on Elona's manicure and said, "I know you got uncomfortable with talking about having kids, so we won't talk about kids anymore. Why don't you tell about where you're from, Chicago, you said, right? Is it true there was huge fire there once?"

"Uh, yeah," Elona said, "About 150 years ago, but everything's okay now. In fact it probably made the city better than before. The story is it was started by a cow that belonged to a Mrs. Catherine O'Leary and it kicked over an oil lantern or something because it got spooked, while other stories say is was started by some drunk men playing a prank and gambling, or it was a bunch of juvenile boys getting into mischief, but the one with the O'Leary cow is the most popular."

"You'll have to forgive me," Eunice said with a slight shiver, "But my husband, Frank, and I never cared for the stuff. Fire bad, you know."

"Yeah, it can be sometimes if you're not careful," Elona agreed, "I don't know why, but sometimes I'm terrified of fire, too, because when I was a little girl I used to always have this scary dream that I was in a burning building. I could even hear a baby crying, maybe I was that baby, and there was a tall dark man trying to save me. Sometimes near the end of the dream, I felt this stabbing pain in my chest, maybe from fear, but it felt like I was stabbed with a knife or something."

Eunice looked at her wide eyed as Elona rubbed at her chest right at her heart. A long awkward silence followed, but then Eunice tried to keep the conversation going.

"Well, it looks like we have one thing in common, we don't care for fire," she said with a somewhat forced smile, "Tell me more about Chicago, what did you do there before coming here?"

"Well, I worked at a museum of science and history, but I had a dream of working at the world famous Field Museum." She became a little more depressed as she said low, "But now that'll never happen, as I lost my job because of that ass of an ex-boyfriend of mine."

"Well, forget about him, honey," Eunice said brashly, "Tell me about you and Drac, what's going there?"

"What?" Elona laughed surprised, "Nothing is going on. Why would you ask that?"

"Come on," Eunice teased with a smile, "It's been flying all over the hotel, you flirting with him after that colorful explosion in the lobby. Besides, Frank told me. Rumor says you two Zinged."

"Zinged?"

"You know, that special 'love at first sight' kinda feeling you get for The One, it's what happened with me and Frank, and with Drac and his first wife, Martha, may she rest in peace."

"Oh, that's so romantic," Elona sighed dreamily, "So it's like being twitterpated, or a wha-pow; that's what my sister Liz called it, like a lightning bolt from nowhere." She then got more serious. "Well, there's nothing going on with us. I'm sorry, Eunice, I gave up on men after Jason and I broke up, besides he seems a like a stick in the mud and a little over bearing and over controlling to me, which scares me. Even if he is easy on the eyes, and kinda funny, and even charming in his own mysterious way."

She started to get a dreamy look on her face again as Eunice finished her other hand and smiled at her as she said, "Well, he has been pretty lonely since Martha died, and it hadn't been easy running this hotel and raising daughter the last century, so who knows, maybe you and he…"

"I very much doubt it, but thanks for the confidence anyway, Eunice," Elona said with heavy sigh, then decided to change the subject, "How do you think the spa broke down a few days ago anyway, some weird power surge in the system? It's been known to happen."

"Maybe," Eunice said with some doubt, "But, I've heard rumor tell that it might've been all a sick prank, maybe not by Frank and his friends, but certainly someone with a sick sense o' humor, even by your average monster standards."

"Why would someone do that?" Elona asked with suspicion.

"Well, my hunch is that it's someone who doesn't want humans at the hotel and it was part of some way to scare you all off, not every monster in the world is happy about the change in human/monster relations, y'know, but I say forget them. I'm happy with how things turned out, I'm even proud my Frankie is getting his own talk show, can you believe it."

It was all sounding very strange to Elona, she then asked, "Who do you think would do such stupid and awful things?"

"Well, I admit not everyone was thrilled with suddenly sharing the hotel with humans, but when all the new fangled stuff they brought with them like electrical appliances for the kitchen and housekeeping stuff, and even the beauty equipment and products, even I have to admit it's had its perks. Of course, one sour puss I can think of who's been a pain about it all is that Quasimodo Wilson."

"Quasimodo?" Elona repeated, her suspicion suddenly piqued, "Little hunchback plumber with a creepy French accent, and crazy yellowed eyes?" She held her hand to his approximate height, "I think I met him when the spa bathrooms suddenly flooded. He kissed my hand, but it really creeped me out for some reason."

Eunice winced in sympathy and said, "That gives even my stitched skin goosebumps. Try to avoid him, honey, he's not all there." She did the crazy sign. "If you ask me, he's always been a few nails shorts of a coffin. He used to be the hotel's head chef, but after what he did at Mavy's 118th party, I say Drac went too easy on him. Should have just thrown him out on his fat little hunchback tuchus."

Eunice began buffing Elona's nails as she let her thoughts wander on that little hunchback she met the other day. The logic she followed told her that if Eunice's suspicions were true, it meant he was risking his job and the hotel's source of income, tourism. In a way, it made no sense as it would mean he wouldn't only lose his job, but dozens of other people may lose what may be a livelihood as well because such vandalism is bad for business. Of course, if what Eunice said about this particular employee was true, this 'Quasimodo' needed some serious mental work and was reckless enough to not care what consequences his actions created.

Her thoughts then drifted back to the Count again and what Eunice said about demoting the hunchback actor. For some reason this made her think that he must be a decent compassionate person in some way as it at least showed the Count must care about his employees and their well being. This made her smile as she liked and respected him a little bit more. But again she tried to push him out of her thoughts, as she had reserved herself to being alone in her life and never falling in love again.

She actually found some comfort in talking with Eunice as it seemed like forever since she did any 'girl talk' and it was nice to at least make a friend again. But this too she knew would be fleeting if she wasn't careful, and she remained highly guarded with her secret condition.

Eunice respected it enough and they gossiped about other trivial things, and when the female golem was finally done she said to Elona,

"Next time I'll give you a facial and a nice mud monster bath, no way would Drac not notice you."

"Thanks, Eunice," Elona said with a smile, and resumed her walk as she admired her well done manicure and was really impressed with how shiny and smooth they were now. She actually did feel a little prettier, and her possible new friend wasn't afraid of 'catching' her condition with touch.

She then decided to go outside and get some fresh air as she was feeling strangely refreshed and happier than she'd felt in a while.


	8. Chapter 8 Falling for You

Falling for You

Elona then decided to go outside and get some fresh air as she was feeling strangely refreshed and happier than she'd felt in a while.

The night was warm yet crisp and the velvet night sky nearly as clear as crystal glass with only some scattered wispy clouds, but they were not enough to curtain the glorious view of the thousands of celestial lights dotting the heavens.

Elona enjoyed the night air as she strolled in a recreational area of the hotel with a large picnic area and almost equally large pool area with strangely green water. All around her normal people and monsters of all kinds, some she immediately recognized from legends and plenty of others she didn't even know the names of, all relaxed, played and even occasionally mingled with each other.

It even made her smile to see scattered groups of kids of all kinds playing fun games and being precocious, no sign of malice or prejudice between them or awareness of how different they all really were.

She made her way to the edge of a precipice to take in the view of the surrounding big lake and high mountains veiled with scattered mists between the slopes and peaks. It was indeed a beautiful and breathtaking view in addition to the shimmering stars and faint reflection of a waxing moon upon inky black waters, and it all told easily of the castle's once nearly inaccessible location and total isolation from the outside world with nary a sign of any nearby civilization. It made Elona feel both strangely liberated to breath in an open place and sadly lonely with an isolating and foreboding place for solitude.

For a few minutes she stared out admiring the view, allowing her thoughts to wander, feeling both at peace in this land's tranquil isolation and in wondering curiosity of what lay beyond the surrounding mountains. It had been one of the few reasons she wanted to come here, the call of exploration and adventure and wonder of discovery.

But these were not her main reasons for coming here.

As a short time passed, her thoughts occupied her so deeply she didn't notice the rambunctious and unruly pack of werewolf pups in their usual destructive shenanigans as they chased their new favorite play thing, a little bat demon.

They chased the shrunken Bela with energized vigor as he flittered about to escape his playful pursuers. A path through the crowd of guests cleared at the last second the whirlwind of pups was on top of any would be relaxing guests as they yelled out irately at the pups, though most barely escaped the ruckus in time.

The mini man-bat tried to find refuge around Elona's brunette hair, making her yelp in surprise at the sudden intrusion and trying to wack away whatever startled her. But the situation only got worse as she was suddenly overwhelmed in a small maelstrom of flying fur and high pitched puppy yelps.

Elona struggled to see through and escape the pups' overactive play making, but she was overwhelmed and began to lean too far out over the turret. The mini man-bat saw this and with a malevolent smirk on his face, he pushed her further, making her loose her footing as she waved her arms about.

Then gravity took its hold, and Elona was over the edge.

The small crowd in the recreational area gasped in shock as they saw the human woman fall over the edge of the stone railing as the pups continued their roughhousing, not even noticing who got caught in the middle.

Amongst the crowd was Dracula, having been making his usual rounds about the hotel to be absolutely sure everything was in order and going smoothly.

Having seen the human woman, Elona Parker, suddenly fall made something worse than dread drop within the famous vampire, and an undeniable overwhelming, over protective instinct took hold of his very being.

An instant after he gave a gasp of surprised shock, he flew through the crowd at top speed, zigzagging between guests and staff alike looking like a living shadow with an indigo tail of blue mist trailing behind him like comet's tail, or as though he was a dark shooting star. An instant he was over the wall by a mere few feet, he shifted to his bat form for a faster plunge.

Elona was falling to her doom, of this her brain was certain as few good memories flashed in her mind and she heard herself screaming with fear. Yet the last memories her mind latched onto were of her family, and how they parted on less than good terms. Part of her regretted never getting a chance to see them again to make amends, while another part of her would have welcomed death from her months long lonely and miserable existence.

She fell far and hard toward craggy and deadly rocks amid inky black waters where she would have found a gruesome watery death, but the impact never came.

A big black bat with eyes of ruby blood red and a determined look on his face fell like a tiny rocket, and when he was an inch from his falling target, he flared his wings and grabbed the human woman with his feet by the scruff of her shirt with supernatural strength.

Confusion colored Elona's face only a moment as she squeezed her eyes tightly and she continued to scream in expectation of the impact, but then took a quick look behind herself as she felt something grab her from behind and pulled up.

She was further confused by her quick glance at seeing a bat, but it was gone from her mind the next moment when she felt her descent slow and she was suddenly flying out over the open lake waters. She gave a yelp as she somehow flew out over the surface, the toes of her shoes skimmed the water and the adrenaline filled speed seemed to leave a long visible wake in her path. She then suddenly ascended up the moment she felt herself in the familiar strong embrace of a masculine figure, burying her face in a strong chest as she instinctively held on tightly, as she was also certain they were spinning high up in a graceful helix.

The ascent slowed and they finally came to a gradual stop, but it took a few moments more for Elona's mind, and her stomach to catch up.

She kept her eyes tightly shut and her face buried in the masculine chest, certain she was dead and these were the last moments of gray matter function, now a splattered mess on the rocks below.

But then she heard an eerily familiar and concerned raspy Romanian voice ask, "Are you alright?"

Confused, Elona slowly opened her eyes and looked up to see the face of her unexpected rescuer, the hotel manager and Dracula actor.

"Yeah, I…think so," she said slowly as she took some courage to look around.

She saw they were out over the large piranha infested lake, but high enough to see the castle a short distance away with a magnificent view of the imposing mountains and the foreboding looking Haunted Forest on the other side of the long bridge to the castle.

"What hap…how…?" she stuttered, her mind still doing some catching up.

"I'm so sorry about Wayne's pups," he simply said, "I keep telling him to get them under better control as their rowdiness ruins my hotel. Normally no one's gotten hurt, but humans are still so new, so it's been a learn as you go process."

She looked up at him confused.

"You mean…I wasn't just in some outlandish stunt show? Or this is some weird hotel prank?"

"Stunt show? Hotel prank? What are you talking about? The prank was the other night, remember?"

Elona's usually logical and skeptical mind began to race as she pulled her gaze from Dracula's piercing icy blue eyes. Clearly she was alive, of that she was becoming certain of, but she still needed to piece it all together.

She again looked around at their dark majestic surroundings, the isolated, rugged, and mysterious landscape with a feel of something out of a dark but romantic fairy tale, and then back to her rescuer. What she was looking for seemed to be missing; thin black stage wires used to create and control the illusion of flight.

Maybe he was using some high tech state-of-the-art miniaturized flight pack or an antigrav magnalev device.

She listened for a small hum of a motor, or working magnets, but all she heard was the wind and the gentle rustle of her rescuer's long elegant cape in the wind as it billowed and fluttered behind him like silken darkness.

She then thought her explanations were stupid as she would know if such things existed, having formerly worked with some Nobel prized winning scientists at a museum.

As she was now so close to him, she began to realize she didn't even feel safety restrains or straps under his clothes.

She also took a better feel of his clothes, though very vintage and authentic, everything down to his tie with a black jewel and the buttons on his vest jacket were _too_ authentic.

She then remembered seeing the black bat, and it was nowhere in sight. And it was said bats are hard to train, even for stage shows. Besides, how could a little bat, even the strongest species, lift a full grown human?

Now that Elona had a closer look at him, she noticed his canines were incredibly sharp, like real fangs. Though she thought he might have been able to afford amazing and expensive dental work. But they seemed so real.

Too real.

She also noticed his ears, which were slightly pointed like elf ears. They had to be silicone make up, or he got really good plastic surgery, and his smooth skin was awfully pale like he'd never been in the sun.

Seemingly with a mind of its own, her hand slowly rose up and gave a light but hard tug at his left ear.

"Ow!" he cried, then complained irritated at her, "Hey, what did you do that for? Don't do that, you wouldn't like it if I did it!"

Elona's eyes widened a bit and her breathing became short and shallow with shock. Despite her strong skepticism and certainty of everything just being gimmicks and special effects, it was all starting to sink in. The one explanation she wasn't yet willing to except, but now was the only one that made complete sense.

"Oh, my god!" she breathed low with growing shock, "You're real!"

"Well, of course I'm real," he said in annoyed sarcasm, "Hasn't it been obvious? What was your first clue?"

She was silent for a moment then answered his rhetorical question, "No wires."

More conflicting and overwhelming questions began to enter her mind as she stared again into her rescuer stunning eyes, but in the back of her mind she was nearly freaking out, not knowing what to believe at that moment.

Dracula just rolled his eyes a bit at her response; clearly she was one of _those_ humans. How adorable.

But still, there was something that fascinated him about her, which just further confused him. She stirred in him strange feelings that were both familiar and yet alien to him, and he didn't understand what it meant. Part of him felt ashamed as though he were betraying Martha's memory.

Elona experienced similar feelings, at the same time she felt safe in his arms yet suddenly frighten by the man holding her. But she was becoming a bit more frightened by how the sensation of his embrace was so strongly familiar, as though he had held her close before and she couldn't remember where or when. It was like trying to remember a dream from early childhood, or a lost and suppressed memory.

For long eternal moments they just drifted on the air, high over dark water which now elegantly shimmered and sparkled with reflected starlight, and distant golden light from the old castle. Their eyes locked once more with each other as though truly seeking to gaze through windows into each other's souls.

Against his own cool body, Dracula strongly felt the human woman's warmth grow stronger and her heartbeat was strong and steady through her clothing, yet it grew faster with the passing moments.

To Elona, having finally realized and accepting this was the _real_ Count Dracula, she had expected him to feel as cold and lifeless as a grave. Instead he felt strong and warm, not normal human warm, as she still felt a coolness of darkness to him, but warm enough to be alive, so to speak.

Dracula finally momentarily tore his gaze away from Elona, noticing a gathered crowd where she had fallen from, among whom was his friend, Frank, who had a weird smile on his patchwork face and wiggled his beetle brows at the vampire manager.

He just glared at the golem, then said nervously,

"Uhh…we should be getting back. Um, after all, uh…the pool's a better place for swimming than the lake."

Elona gave a small nervous chuckle.

A faint blue and violet aura then surrounded the levitating Count, and somehow Elona knew he was about to transform, making her frightful.

"No!" she cried as she grasped tighter to Dracula's frame, surprising even him. Were it not for his superior strength, it may have been enough to cut off his breathing, which was still made a bit difficult by how tightly she now held.

"What?" he asked confused, having ceased his shapeshifting.

"Please, please, don't drop me," she begged fearfully.

"I promise I'm not going to drop you," he tried to reassure her though he still felt a bit insulted, "What makes you think that?"

"I'm just really, really afraid of heights," she stammered, with an undertone of embarrassment.

Dracula tried to hide a small smile but understood a bit as humans couldn't fly. He gently shifted his own grasp on her to face her forward as he held out his right hand and said,

"Give me your hand."

Elona was highly reluctant to shift her precarious position so high in the air over piranha infested waters, but she did her best to cooperate.

She tightly grasped his right hand with her, feeling how cool and smooth it was, while she felt his other arm hold tightly but gently around her waist. She felt her heart racing and her breathing was a bit hard, but a small wave of calm over her as she saw more clearly the view of the castle before her.

Then she felt their bodies steadily and slowly move forward as they became parallel to the surface of the shimmering black lake below.

Elona was in awe of what was happening now, the castle looming closer as she began to realize how truly immense it was, yet she was caught in the true freedom and unclenching of gravity's hold as she and Dracula soared above the waters. She felt as though it had to be a dream like her spirit had been freed from her shell of a body to be at one with the ether.

The giant wall loomed closer as she and Dracula flew vertically and parallel to it, the deadly rocks and dark water of the surrounding lake disappearing below, the whole time she felt as though she should be hearing romantic flying music from thin air, something like from Superman.

Steadily they finally flew over the wall into view of the now dispersing crowd that backed away to give them room to land.

Unsurprisingly, but still to Elona's astonishment, Dracula landed gracefully and gently with barely a whisper of wind, save for the quiet graceful rustle of his satin black cape.

She remained in his embrace for a moment longer than necessary, both reluctant to let go.

"There you go," he finally said, letting her go as his cape cocooned his figure.

"Thank you," Elona said quietly, strange yet wonderful emotions surged through her, making her lightheaded.

Dracula just gave a small smile in return, the same emotions flowed through him, when at that moment Wayne and Wanda Werewolf came running up to them, though Wanda waddled more than walked.

"Thank the night you saved her, Drac," Wayne breathed heavily.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Wanda asked worriedly, "I'm so sorry about the kids, they get so easily riled up in their playing."

She would have continued but Dracula interrupted,

"It'll be alright, Wanda, but it's your kids that should be apologizing. How often have I asked you to get them under control."

Wanda just gave him a dirty look as Wayne whistled for his pups to come back, responding their usual volatile fur flying fashion.

"Stop your roughhousing right now," Dracula said loudly and intensely, yet only a few pups listened to him and to those few he said,

Aw, c'mon, Uncle Drac," complained a pup name Warren, "What's the big deal? We were just playing, and she looks okay to me."

"I said APOLOGIZE! Raaaarrgh!" he shouted as he gave a deep red eyed snarling roar at the pups, dozens of whom now cowarding before the vampire Count, and drew the fearful awe inspired stares of the nearby crowd.

Dracula squeezed his eyes shut to bring his anger under control and tried to calm down, and then he glared at the children of Wayne and Wanda. Hoping to make them see reason, he told them very firmly but still heatedly,

"Try to understand, kids, I can't afford bad press with the humans. If it got out a human was killed at my hotel it would ruin any chance of being friends with them, and setting the Monster world back centuries. Do you understand?"

A few of them nodded timidly, and finally it was Warren who slowly went up to Elona and said,

"We're sorry, we'll try to be more careful now 'cause there's humans at Uncle Dracula's hotel."

Elona was speechless for a long moment, until she finally said, "Thank you."

All the formerly rampaging werepups now returned to their parents' side, who were staring at Dracula wide eyed along with the gathered crowd of onlookers, monsters and humans alike.

Dracula stood where he was a moment or so longer, feeling a bit embarrassed and ashamed of losing his temper that way. All he could do was straighten out his high collar and say loudly,

"Okay, folks, nothing to see here, everything's okay now."

A ripple of murmurs began throughout the crowd and no doubt the gossip will spread through the hotel like wildfire in no time.

For now Dracula could do nothing about it except but wait to cross that bridge.

He was about to leave when he heard Elona say, "Wait."

He turned back to her and said, "Yes?"

"Uh…thanks, again. For saving me, I mean."

"Of course. You're quiet welcome," he smiled to her when a suit of armor guard suddenly came to him and announced there was an emergency.

Dracula gave a groan as he made his way through the still murmuring crowd, feeling a little awkward and confused.

"Wow," Elona whispered to herself, "Count Dracula, _the_ Count Dracula saved me. And I think he likes me."

Elona decided she had enough excitement for one night and made her way back to her room. It will take a bit of time for the shock of the experience and the realization the hotel and its monsters were real to fully sink in.

Yet in another part of the hotel, nearby things were far less than stellar.


	9. Chapter 9 Rifts

Rifts

Bela snarled with a mix of amusement and growing frustration, mostly because his so-called 'partner' was taking too long to deliver on his promised end of their supposed bargain.

While he went around doing things for Quasimodo's plan, as his small size allowed him to go into small and tight spaces as well as be nearly unnoticed, Bela strongly preferred his original size and build. And while being small had its advantages, it was still holding him back in his mind.

After the Bat Demon messed with more electronic doodads and other human junk, Bela created a distraction in the pool and picnic area with that human female while another vandalizing sabotage took place, and now Quasimodo and Bela just needed to wait to see what would unfold between humans and monsters.

The laundry room was in shambles, chaos and disaster was everywhere.

"What the hell happened in here?!" Dracula demanded, as anger grew within him at the continuous and insufferable damage that had befallen his hotel.

Now in the laundry room which, like everything else in the hotel, had been 'upgraded' for the human guests' convenience, thanks to Johnny, Dracula saw the state of it and he grew shocked with disbelief and disgust under laid with a faint growing rage.

Several high tech clothes washers and dryers had burst apart, or simply broke down from a power surge, or lack of power, and the entire laundry room was flooded with over flowing soapy water and hundreds of thousands of pieces of clothing were not only mixed up, but completely ruined.

"Get me Mr. Ghouligan, Wilson, and Clifton down here immediately," he ordered with a growl to the nearest armor guard.

"Yes, sir," it said with a salute and was soon gone with a clanking march.

He then looked at the gathered housekeeping witches before him with a dark glare, especially poor Isadora, the head housekeeping witch, who looked timidly and expectantly back at him. She was becoming more and more certain as head supervising housekeeping witch, she was going to be punished for this.

While Isadora will always have a deep infatuation with Dracula, the last thing she really wanted was to incur her master's wrath.

Instead he told them with a lingering hard and razor sharp edge to his voice,

"This hotel got along fine without these humany machines for more than a century, and I know you're all capable of it again. Get this place cleaned up and do the laundry the old way, and have the guests clothes returned ASAP. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, your Lordship," the Witches all said submissively.

"Alright, girls, let's get to work! Chop, chop!" Isadora ordered with a clap of her green hands, hoping to redeem herself and her sisters in her master's eyes.

They began to gather up both old and new cleaning supplies to try and get the laundry room in order as they also began to cast other cleaning spells to help the work along.

The three he ordered brought to him finally arrived a few minutes later, and Dracula gave his orders to them and they got to work straight away, though Quasimodo feigned grudging reluctance. Dracula gave the hunchback a suspicious glare, as though to warn him not to try anything.

The moment the Vampire was out of sight the hunchback gave a malevolent smirk, as Bela peek out from his pants pocket. This flooded laundry room may have been another one of his doings as part of his plan to discredit Dracula, and he knew he would still have to clean the messes and damage it all caused, but it was a small price to pay in his book as well as a way to be incognito and inconspicuous if any part of his plan was to work.

However, Bela was losing what little patience he had for anything to start happening, while poor Esmeralda was certain partnering with the Bat Demon will lead to nothing but trouble for her friend. She tried off and on to warn of Quasimodo of this, but he continued not to listen as he was determined and all out for revenge and discrediting Dracula to the point it was becoming an obsession, and this worried her.

Dracula walked down the hall from the laundry room, breathing a bit hard at what he had seen and it was an outrage.

For the last week, his hotel had experienced vandalism and sabotage in one form or another and while it was nothing he usually couldn't handle, each disaster seemed worse than the last and it was starting to get to him.

Being a responsible manager, as well as a nobleman, with so many responsibilities could get stressful at times, especially if you're also a supernatural being like a Vampire.

Maybe what Frank said, even if he meant it as a joke, about these supposed accidents being sabotage had some truth to it, which meant someone on his own staff was causing it all. The question was why, and one reason Dracula could think of was because someone just had a sick sense of humor, but a more likely reason was because someone must have wanted to drive the humans away from his hotel.

He heard that not long after the damage to the spa and gym, and the flooding of their bathrooms, at least a dozen human guests had checked out, and while Dracula thought it was just a small number and thought they just needed time to calm down and would return in due time, he now had a feeling if he didn't get to the bottom of this soon it would mean more human guests leaving and in turn he knew it would ruin any chance of furthering better relations between the monster world and human world.

His concerns were disappointedly confirmed barely an hour later as a human man and his family checked out and he walked hard through the lobby as he shouted,

"This hotel is a joke! The room keys get mixed up, there are bugs in the system and bugs in the rooms the size of Texas here." The Fly, helping at the reception desk over heard him and insultingly put his hairy arms on his hips as he glared at the human with over sized eyes as he fluttered in place. "The food literally bites, and now I've lost half my underwear and the rest of my clothes are ruined. We're leaving this monstrous hotel, if it was meant for monsters in the first place! They can have it!"

"Well, you don't have to be rude and condescending about it!" yelled a nearby hag.

"Daddy, I don't wanna go!" his little eight year old whined, "This is the coolest place ever, I wanna see Harry Three-Eye, I wanna meet Dracula!"

But the man didn't listen as he just shouted to a passing family of Sasquatch as he just continued to shout his complaints, "And another thing, you monsters otta be ashamed of yourselves for what you consider safe for your own children! That children's hotel playroom is a veritable death trap, my kid almost lost his fingers playing with toy rat traps and mini guillotines! He also almost got mauled by those wild werewolves!"

"It's not our fault your kids don't know how to play properly!" the big male Sasquatch shouted at the man.

"You call that playing? I call it child endangerment!" the human man shouted, and a shouting match just broke out between the family of Sasquatch and the complaining human man's family.

"He's right," a human woman yelled in irritation, "This place is too dangerous for little children, besides the spa is no better, it looks like an old torture chamber and look at my hair!" She took off her large sun hat and it looked burned and all fly away.

"Hey, my hair was ruined, too," yelled a nearby gremlin lady, "And in case you didn't notice, they got it fixed now and Gustav can fix your hair."

"I'm not having some over grown slimy octopus touch my hair!" the human woman shouted in insulted anger.

The lobby was becoming a cacophony of loud shouts and angered yelling, even the staff got swept up into the arguments in defense of monster guests, as it soon became a confused mess of where one argument began and another ended as insults were thrown around by both humans and monsters how all were wrong in so many ways, including a lot of very politically incorrect insults and slurs mixed with threats of fear mongering from both sides.

Among some groups of male humans and monsters, a few even traded hits and punches that threatened to explode into even more violent fist fights, while an occasional miscellaneous item was thrown just for spite.

The shouting fights only lasted an intense minute or so, but it felt like a long and drawn out feud that could become the catalyst for something worse and needed to be stopped before it really got out of control.

There came a sudden intense roar that echoed throughout the lobby and a sudden silence fell like a wave, as all eyes, monsters and humans, looked to where it came from; a red eyed and furious looking Count Dracula.

All eyes were now on him as he stood at the head of the lobby in front of the reception desk. His eyes lost their scarlet glow, but his gaze remained piercingly cold as his face gave a dark frowning scowl that would have made even Blobby's spine chill, if he ever had one.

Dracula began walking slowly down the center of the lobby, the crowd backed up and parted in his path to give him a wide berth as he looked around the glared at everyone, his very presence commanding and overwhelmingly intimidating.

He held his hands behind his back as he continued to glare coldly at everyone, each step he took was a loud echo in the vast and heavily silent lobby. He even took steps in either side of the crowd, and still humans and monsters backed away from him and looked on at him in awed fear, wondering what the Undead King was going to do.

"What is going on here?" he finally spoke in his raspy Romanian voice, and though it was low, it was heard loud and clear as a crystal by everyone in the lobby from the deafening silence.

For a long few seconds nobody said anything, until the big male Sasquatch finally told him over defensively,

"This insufferable human just started yelling and complaining at me and my family for no reason, Count. We didn't do anything, and he just thought to bitch and complain to my family like everything was our fault."

The man glared at the male Sasquatch like he was going to say something more, and Dracula questioned, "And you decided to start an argument?"

"Well he said…I was just defending my family," stuttered the Sasquatch and pointed accusingly at the man and his family, "Besides, they started it."

"I don't care who started what," Dracula said coldly, "I'm finishing it. I expect better from you."

The Sasquatch gave a look of shame, while the man seemed to smirk until Dracula looked at him with the same cold glare and said, "And you."

The man froze on the spot as Dracula said clearly to everyone, "From _all_ of you. Yes, my hotel was originally to be a safe haven for monsters from human persecution, but things have changed and it is now open to everyone, monsters and humans alike. I will not have a single petty argument justify destroying that and setting monsters, and now humans as well, back centuries. If anyone here believes otherwise, you will leave immediately, because I will not have such childish behavior at my hotel."

"Oh, yeah?" the man overly boldly challenged the Vampire, "Well if not because of the weirdness of this place, why don't you do something about all those problems that cropped up around here!"

Dracula just looked back at the human with the same cold glare as he then slowly walked up to him. The human man, who was a bit squat and heavy set and barely came past the end of Dracula long sharp chin, seemed to realize too late who he challenged and just met the Count's gaze with a frozen fear.

Dracula heard the man give a faint gulp and said to him with the same cold and authoritative voice, "I don't why or how all those accidents happened recently, but I am going to investigate and put a stop to them. I have done my very best to acclimate my hotel to human needs, but if it is not enough, then you and your family are free to leave. Now."

"We are," the man said with a shaky voice, "And I'm going to leave a scathing review that will tell people not to come here, give it a bad name."

"I don't care," Dracula hissed coldly, "My hotel was here long before this worldly web I have heard about, and it will be here long after you are gone."

Dracula stared off with the man, and his boldness was fading, but with the last of it he dared ask, "Are you threatening me? Because I heard you don't drink human blood anymore."

Dracula leaned a little bit closer to the man and almost whispered to him, "That doesn't mean I am not still capable."

The man gave a gulp again, his fear clearly growing. But then his wife said a bit nervously, "You know what, it really hasn't been that bad, maybe we just didn't give this place a chance. Please, Count, my husband was just upset, he didn't mean anything." She looked at the Sasquatch family. "We're really sorry, I hope this won't leave any harsh feelings between us."

The Sasquatch male gave a nod and the woman smiled as she turned back to Dracula and tried to ask nicely, "Could we check back in to a new room, please, Count? I and my son actually want to stay, and I promise to make sure my husband is on his best behavior."

Dracula straighten his posture and his cold glare softened only a bit for the woman, and he gave her a look saying he was going to hold her to that promise. He nodded to her, and called to some zombies bellhops,

"Augustus, Squinty Eye, take these folks luggage to a vacant room on the fourth floor."

The zombies moaned and moved stiffly as they carried out their master's orders, Squinty Eye momentarily lost an arm taking one of the pieces of luggage but it was quickly reattached.

"Thank you, sir," the woman said and she and her family followed the bellhops to the elevators.

"That was so cool," the boy said in awe, "Dracula threaten to drink your blood, Dad."

But the man just gave a frown.

Dracula looked at the rest of the crowd saying there was nothing else to see here and everyone can go about their business again, but if any more fights broke out in his hotel lobby or anywhere else, he may be inclined to be less lenient. So the crowd of humans and monsters dispersed, and he gave a shaky deep sigh as he tried to calm down and keep his growing temper under control.

He then noticed something strange with his hand, it was turning a shadowy black. Dracula gasped and tried to hide his hand under his cape, hoping no one noticed. It had been a very long time, but he knew what it meant. Why was this happening now? When had he started to lose control? Were the accidents that had plagued him lately really stressing him out?

He just took deep breathes and began to count, "1 vampire bat, 2 vampire bats, 3 vampire bats…"

While he counted to calm down, Bela had been watching what happened in the lobby, hiding in the shadows above and flew back to tell Quasimodo what he saw.

"Nothing is working," Bela growled, "Humans are staying!"

"Ah, but zere is where you are wrong, my little friend," Quasimodo smirked, "Some humans have left and may never return for we have planted seeds of doubt and reaffirmed human prejudice, but ze fighting in the lobby is only the beginning, for zose seeds have finally begun to ferment and grow. We must push zem further. More damage and vandalism will have to wait. We must now plant doubt about _Monsieur_ Dracula's so-called good name."

Bela just gave a frustrated grunting growl as he was quickly becoming agitated and resentful for being used by this hunchback runt of a monster, when all he wanted to do was destroy and devastate the hotel around him, and steal human souls again. But for now he couldn't do it until he had his true size restored, and when it was he would finally tear down this pathetic little twisted troll thing and shred him to pieces, along with all the humans, Dracula and his abomination for a family.

Meanwhile back in the lobby, Dracula slowly paced around still counting, "31 Vampire bats, 32 vampire bats…"

He didn't really notice several familiar people come from the dispersing crowd, until Mavis said, "Hello, Dad." He gave a small startled yelp. "Are you okay?"

She, Johnny, and Dennis had returned from their visit to Grandpa Vlad and were now back at the hotel.

"Oh, hello, Mavy, my little mouse," he chuckled a bit nervously, "I was just, uh…"

"It's okay, Dad," Mavis reassured him, "We got back just as you stopped the fighting. It was pretty intense, but I just don't understand why it happened at all. I thought humans and monsters were friends now."

"Me, too," Johnny said, "What do you think is going on that it made everybody just start fighting all of a sudden?"

Dracula told them what had happened with the laundry room and how a single argument just erupted in his lobby.

"Well, that just sucks," Johnny groaned, "I should've been here to help smooth things over, that is my job after all." Dracula gave his 'slacker' son-in-law a look with a raised eyebrow, but Johnny didn't notice as he just a thoughtful look.

"I know we need to get to the bottom of these accidents, find out who or what is causing them," he said, "But I'm also thinking we need to find a way to bring everybody together, show that humans and monsters aren't all that different from each other."

"Like a party?" Mavis suggested with a smile, "You do always throw the best parties, Dad. Maybe the next birthday party…"

"That's a good idea, Mavy," Dracula said but shook his head, "But I consider birthday parties a private family thing. If a party involves more human guests, I rather it wasn't a birthday."

What they didn't realize was that Dracula wanted to keep private that the next birthday was his own, and he really hadn't had a party in a couple of centuries.

"Hi, everyone," a female voice said and everyone saw Elona walking up to them, "I couldn't help but overhear. I was just passing through when the fighting broke out and I was trying to stay out of it by staying near the elevators on the sidelines. I was appalled by what happened, as I detest violence. If I could interject, I think a party's a great idea to bring everyone together, maybe an occasion or holiday everyone can celebrate."

"Yeah," Johnny agreed happily, "Do you have any suggestions, Elona?"

Elona seemed to shrug a little as she looked at Dracula, as though unsure of what to say.

"Well, uh…"she stammered a bit, "The first thought that comes to me is a Christmas party, just because it's always been my favorite holiday. I'm hardly the religious type, but I always loved how it promoted the best in people, and I always felt like a kid again at that time of year, all the colors and…"

She began to get a dreamy look on her face that brought smiles to Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis, but then they heard a scoffing laugh.

"Christmas," Dracula scoffed, "If you're forgetting, Miss Parker, those of my kind and this Christmas don't mix well."

They all looked at Dracula and gave him surprised and puzzled looks.

For Elona, it had taken a bit of time for her to accept that everything in the hotel was real, and she talked to the real Count Dracula, and while it made her a bit nervous about it and thought about just avoiding him all together, for some strange reason she also felt drawn to him and it scared her. She thought she was starting to live a delusional real life 'Twilight' fantasy, and while she was okay with other people liking those movies, it wasn't her thing.

"I think I understand, Count," she tried to say reasonably, "But it's only a suggestion, and I'm sure it could work if you can find a way."

"Yeah, Drac, think about it," Johnny joined in, "For once we could stay here and celebrate Christmas instead of going into town every year like Mavis and I have for the last four years, just so my parents and family could spent time with Dennis. They did say they were going to visit more often every holiday."

"Please, Papa Drac?" Dennis pleaded to his vampa, "I wanna see what Christmas is like at home, and it's so much fun. I get the neatest presents from everybody."

"No," Dracula said with a raising tone of finality, "I remember what Christmas was like before all the colorful frilliness and ridiculous 'good will' stuff. I won't alienate my guests by bringing such an overrated human holiday into my hotel."

Elona stiffened at the argument, her lovely face twisted a bit into an annoyed and angered look at his dismissal of the suggestion without really giving it some real thought.

"I can understand why'd you be reluctant about it, if you're worried about the religious side, Count," Elona said, "But there's another side to it, too, about just being kind and giving to others trying to do good in the world all the time. It's about coming together and doing just that."

"Monsters are already coming together, and I have allowed humans into my hotel," Dracula argued back, "It's enough."

"But, Drac, as the Human Relations expert at the hotel," Johnny started to tell him, "I know it will take a lot more to make better relations for humans and monsters, all your friends in one way or another use their fame to show that."

"Stay out of this, Jonathan," Dracula warned him sternly, and Johnny just gave him a dirty look, "This has nothing to do with my friends' ridiculous celebrity status."

"What about your own?" Mavis asked.

"I don't care about it, Death kitten, it's not me."

"But he's right, Count," Elona spoke up, "Another way to help promote better relations between the monster world and the human world might be to have an annual celebration of some kind where anyone can attend, and it will help repair or prevent any more widening rifts between cultures. It happens all the time in the human world, like at theme parks, conventions like ComiCon, or a town festival, like that Monster Festival I heard about."

"Oh, sure," Dracula said sarcastically, "Like that'll catch on at this hotel."

"I'm just suggesting…" Elona said, growing more perturbed at the Count's stubbornness.

"Not gonna happen, Missy," he retorted with a wave of his hand.

Elona's eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed, for a moment Dracula thought she looked really cute this way.

"You arrogant, narrow minded…," she hissed out, "I'm starting to remember why I hate vampire movies."

Dracula glared at her darkly, and like a dark wind with his swiftness he came closer to stare at her straight in the eye, but she hardly flinched. Dracula's family watched with tense expressions, not sure if they should do something to stop Dracula and Elona's growing argument.

He backed away a bit, and with a final tone he said,

"I've already made too many changes to my hotel, and there won't be anymore."

"Why?" she challenged as she raised her voice, "Because you're still learning not all humans are only good or only bad?"

"You're this close," he growled as he held his forefinger and thumb a half inch apart, "to reminding me why humans were once the bane of my existence, but I now know it's _your_ kind that is a plague among human kind."

Elona's face softened as she lost her edge, becoming an almost stoic unreadable expression with her jaw clenched and her posture became tense.

Realizing he must have said something wrong and insulting, his own face became colored with regret as he tried to apologize,

"I-I'm sorry, Miss Parker, I didn't mean any…"

But she stopped him with a raised hand as she just said with a low toneless voice,

"It's alright. If that's how you feel, I'll leave. It's nothing I haven't heard before. It's the same everywhere I go."

She walked away with tenseness in her step, leaving behind a disgruntled and confused Dracula as he watched her go.

A small crowd in the lobby had overheard the growing argument as well as his own family. Dracula looked at them with guilt as he continued to awkwardly stand where he was. Yet Johnny, Mavis, and Dennis just gave him sympathetic looks that also told him to go after her.

He hesitated for a few moments longer before slowly making his way through the crowded lobby to find the difficult woman he seemed to really like for reasons he didn't quite understand.


	10. Chapter 10 Soul Baring

Soul Baring

Using his Vampire Far Sight powers, it didn't take Dracula long to find her, though he expected her to be in her room packing her things. Instead he found her sulking in the library, alone.

She stood on the far end of the library with her back to him, not even giving any response to the low creak of an opening old wooden door to see who had arrived. She didn't even turn as his footsteps got closer to her.

Though Elona had her back turned to him, he could tell her arms were crossed over her chest and her head was bowed a bit in sadness.

"There's nothing to say," she said with a slightly shaky voice, as though she struggled to hold back tears.

"Please," he pleaded with sincerity, "I only wish to apologize."

"No need. It's always the same thing everywhere I go, why did I expect this place to be any different once my secret got out," she said with a still shakiness in her voice, "I thought I was so careful."

"What secret?" Dracula asked, confused.

"You don't know?"

He remained silent.

Elona let out a sharp sigh as she said, "Do you want to know why I don't socialize so well? Why I push everyone away, act so unpleasant, or try to avoid people? Or why I don't stay in one place too long?"

Dracula was still silent as he waited for Elona to continue.

She gave a small sniffle as she began, "It all started seven or eight months ago. I had a good career, friends and family who loved me, a great boyfriend. Or so I thought at the time. I had a life. And then I lost everything because I was so naïve and stupid."

She gave another small sniffle again, clearly trying to hold back tears as her voice shook a bit more,

"One night, my ex, Jason, and I had…well, a night of passion, a night I thought I would never forget, but now I just want it burned from my memory. A couple of weeks later I started feeling weak and sick, and I thought I just caught a mild case of the flu, but it persisted, so I went to the doctor. After some tests were run, I was proven wrong and got the biggest shock of my life."

Dracula waited for her to continue, standing close but a respectful distance from her and as still as a statue.

A single tear fell from Elona's eye as she tried to keep her voice steady,

"Maybe it's a good thing you don't drink human blood anymore, because God knows we've really screwed up out health over the centuries."

The darkly dressed man just gave a look with a bit of a raised eyebrow as he saw two more tears fall from her eyes, clear she was losing he struggle to control her emotions.

"The blood tests came back positive, I have a controversial condition, a disease that weakens my immune system called HIV," she choked out with a mix of guilt and disgust,

"I know I got it from my ex, and I discovered he'd been fooling around with other women while we were still together, not just at home but maybe even abroad when he was serving in the Marines during one of his terms. I confronted him about it, but he just turned it around and accused me of being unfaithful and with another man."

For a moment, Dracula's eyes flashed a blood red in anger, but Elona did not see this behind her.

"I only stayed with him for so long because I thought I had fallen in love with a real hero, and because Jason served in the military, my dad took a liking to him and saw him as the real son he always wanted instead of my younger slacker of a brother. But it ended right then and there, and I just moved on with my life, even if it now meant a new stricter diet and medications. Then my boss at the museum I worked for somehow found out and showed his true colors as the bigot he really was. Sure, he gave other more legitimate reasons, but I know they were just loopholes. It's obvious he fired me because of my condition, despite with the law says."

She was barely aware of Dracula coming a bit closer to her, a look of sorrow and pity upon his pale handsome face.

"I probably could've sued them, but it would've cost more than a year's worth of my salary and I didn't want to face the controversy.

"When I couldn't find another job after a couple of months, my family started to treat me differently, like I was nothing but a burden or an inconvenience in their own lives. The only one of my family who was willing to help me was my ultra conservative grandfather, and I thought he'd be the first to turn me away. But in the end I realized he always loved me and was there for me when I needed someone the most, despite all his warnings to me about how sinful out of wedlock intimacy was.

"He left me a small fortune in his will before he died, and I could've used it to start a new life to hold me over until I found a new job, but I decided to blow it on a European vacation my family always talked about and I can now only take alone. It's begun to run low, and I've had to work menial jobs to pay off debts or make ends meet. I only stayed in one place until the debt was paid off, a few days or weeks at most. Any kind of friends I came close to making I would push away because I didn't want them to discover my secret, and those that did would look at me strangely, so I left."

Her shoulders shook a bit as more tears flowed from her glazed over eyes, her pain surfacing stronger as she spoke to the last kind of person she ever thought could understand, yet the consolation of someone just to listen to her was almost comfort enough.

"There's scientific evidence that proves otherwise, but HIV and AIDS are still so feared and controversial that there are still some people who believe and fear getting it just by touching, like a handshake or a hug. Even in my own family, they were becoming fearful of touching me. I've become a pariah."

Her shoulders began to shake harder and she began to sob quietly, though she choked to hold it back. Dracula slowly and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, as though to show and reassure her not everyone was fearful of touching her, though in his case it was quite the exception.

"I then heard about an exclusive hotel with a year round monster theme, and I didn't really care if it was real or a gimmick to draw tourists, I just saw a way to finally escape my pain. Last week on the drop of a dime, on an impulse, I just though what better place to go and lose myself among bigger freaks than myself."

Her tears came stronger now as she sobbed in a broken voice, "But I should have known it was no different. I just want to be treated like a normal person, and not like someone carrying the Plague. I hate it. I hate it!"

She finally broke and began to cry out all her pain, and either by an unconscious choice by either of them or not, Elona found herself in Dracula's embrace, crying into his chest as he hugged her close with such warmth and gentleness.

No words were spoken, he just gently held her in a warm companionable hug, though beneath it there was something more, like a hope his very presence will heal her pain.

Though Dracula knew he could never appreciate the pain she had gone through, or what it was even like to have a such a condition due to his very Vampire nature making him immune to most mortal diseases, he did feel a kind of kindred spirit to her in one or two ways; being shunned and alienated, and the pain of loneliness.

As Elona vented months of pain, sadness, and self-loathing, oddly she also began to not feel so alone, and safe, like this man was here for her and he will never let anything hurt her, and listened to the surprising but gentle rhythm of a steady heartbeat.

Yet part of her wondered why she even told him her problems at all, why was she trusting this total stranger, this 'creature' with her inner most personal secret? That part of her questioned was not this darkly clad 'man' the very same Count Dracula that was portrayed as a true monster, an embodiment of pure evil and absolute unholiness? The most infamous Nosferatu, and undisputed King of Vampires, the one and only Prince of Darkness himself?

At the moment, it didn't really matter as she only felt a comforting and warm presence beneath a cool and crisp countenance. Whatever was said about his reputation, at the moment it wasn't who he was. This wasn't some demonic monster or nightmarish horror villain, but instead simply a man. A man who knew love and sadness, pain and joy like anyone else. A man who was dedicated to all of his guests' happiness and running his hotel to perfection, and loved his family with an equal if not even greater passion.

As Dracula gently embraced this temperamental, yet intriguing and sad human woman, his thoughts mused for a moment on what it might be like to be in her place, but instead they went straight to Mavis. Though he always worried about her and had only wanted to protect her, he just knew even if she suddenly got some weird disease or weakness, even if that was very unlikely, he would never abandon her, unlike this human woman's own family. Not only because he deeply loved his daughter, but also because of the promise he made right after his beloved Martha was killed.

To this day he continued to keep that promise, even though she was now married and had her own child.

For some strange reason, he now wanted to make a similar promise to this woman, if just because in some ways she reminds him of Martha.

For a long minute or two, he allowed her to cry and just gingerly hugged her and hoped it was comfort enough, even as she tried to stop her tears and bring her emotions under control. She gave another small sniffle as she wept in a low voice, "Please, don't tell anyone."

"Your secret is safe with me," he whispered reassuringly and with sincerity.

He then withdrew from his inside vest pocket a fresh crisp black handkerchief for Elona to dry her remaining tears with, which she also used to blow her nose. Very heavily, like she was making a moose call.

Dracula face twisted in slight gross out as with a wave of his hand, the handkerchief then disappeared in a puff of indigo mist to the laundry room.

They just stood together quietly for a few moments longer with Dracula's arm around the slumped shoulders of a brooding Elona, until he finally asked with a small gentlemanly smile,

"Would you like to take a walk with me?"

Elona slowly looked up at him with slightly puffy eyes and said with a low voice, "Okay, I guess I could use some fresh air."

He gingerly took her hand and like a 19th century gentleman took her arm into the hook of his arm, and they began a steady slow stroll through the lavish old European castle like hotel, never noticing high above them the spying red eyed glare of a dangerously smirking Bela. As much as he hated prolonging his pathetic alliance with the hunchback, somehow the little Bat Demon thought Quasimodo would find this bit of information interesting and useful to his plan.

He fluttered away without Dracula or Elona noticing him.

Their stroll took them to different parts of the hotel, and Dracula told Elona with great pride about what each room or area was and what else they were used for besides the places she had been such as the spa and pool area, as though he was giving her a personal tour. She actually did enjoy learning about the hotel and it's simple history, as it reminded her a little of part of her old job at the museum, as she had done volunteer work at the same museum as a docent, and made a little extra money as a tour guide in giving tours to groups of people such as school children on field trips.

It was at least a nice way for Dracula to show he meant his apology and to help her get her mind off of her troubles, even almost forget their argument earlier.

Their walk eventually took them to a bridge that lead to a small turret of the castle, and Elona found herself staring out at the breathtaking view of the surrounding tall and misted mountains and huge lake that surrounded the island foundation of the castle.

While the landscape also had heavily clouded skies most of the year to add to the land's old ominous and frightening atmosphere, tonight it was remarkably clear, Elona found herself staring in deep thought up at the glimmering and twinkling stars among the velvet night sky.

Dracula finally noticed her quiet staring and asked with curiosity, "What are you staring at?"

"Just the view, it's beautiful here. I could stare at it forever."

"I thought you said you were afraid of heights," he chuckled.

"It's the falling more than the heights, but I'm okay with it now."

They gave low laughs as Elona released herself from his arm and leaned against the stone railing and continued to stare at the stars. After a long moment or two, Dracula joined her and just stood there in companionable silence for a while.

Out of curiosity, Dracula finally asked, "Why do you look at the stars? What do you see when you look at them?"

Not that he didn't appreciate their beauty, but to Dracula they were just sparkling points of light that were part of the wonders of the night.

"Besides the constellations," she said slowly, "I don't know. Mystery, wonder. Things yet to be discovered. They've been a comfort to me, giving me a kind of spiritual experience and peace of mind, reminding me my problems can be insignificant in comparison to the vastness of the universe. The pain goes away for a little while, and I remember the Earth is but a tiny blue speck floating and dancing in space. One of my favorite scientists, a man named Carl Sagen, said that the Earth is 'a pale blue dot bathed in sunlight' and the Sun is but one of countless billions of stars and in billions of galaxies. They remind me of how we must appreciate what we have here and now, because our lives are so fleeting compared to billions of years of the universe and how stupid it is how I lost everything because of…you know. And then the pain momentarily comes back."

After hearing what she said, despite his centuries long existence, Dracula suddenly felt very small.

"I know I've been running," she continued, "trying to escape and not face my problems. But I also feel like I'm still searching for something, a place to belong and not be alone, but I know I never will. Sometimes I think I'm better off alone because nobody will hurt me, I've had to accept that."

She felt Dracula gently place a cool hand over hers , and saw him looking at her with a sympathetic yet deep look as though to tell her he would never hurt her. It sent a chill down her spine and her heart beat a bit faster, which Dracula heard as clear as a bell and it was wonderful music.

"Since I lost Martha," he said slowly, "I felt the same way, not just for myself and my daughter, but for all of monster kind."

"I just wish I didn't have one thing to define who I am, there's so much more to me."

"I know."

She gave a small smile as she said, "The one thing I learned since coming here is that monsters and humans aren't so different, we're all people. Sagen was right about another thing, we're star stuff."

Dracula didn't really know what that meant, but for now it didn't matter as somehow he felt it was true.

Their eyes once again locked; icy blue to a more azure blue, and time and the world just stopped.

Slowly their faces came closer to each other and their eyes slowly closed, both felt as though they were floating on air and at the same time had swarms of butterflies in their stomachs, or in Dracula's case a swarm of bats.

There was only this moment; nothing else mattered as their lips came within centimeters of each other.

 _Vrrrt, vrrrt, vrrrt._

"Ugh," Dracula groaned, and Elona gave a confused look. Dracula has a cell phone?

"That better not be Porridge Head with another Twitter update," he said with a groaned annoyance, as he took out his phone from his vest pocket, which was better than his back pants pocket, "They're all the same."

He once again struggled to answer it with his sharp nails, but then retracted them as they just made it all the more agonizing when he felt nervous.

He saw it was Johnny (His picture is with him and his backpack like when he first entered the hotel.), and finally pressed _Answer._

"What? What?!" he yelled.

"Hey, Drac," Johnny said nervously on his phone screen, "Uh, where are you?"

"Never mind that," he said hard, "What do you want, Jonathan?"

"Well, there's like, a really funky emergency with the tennis court," Johnny said with a near panic, "and the armor dudes can't find you, so can you come like, _now_?"

Dracula could only give a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes at this sudden inconvenience.

So much for his moment with Elona.

Johnny saw his reaction and asked, "Did I interrupt something?"

"No! No, no, no," Dracula quickly said, suddenly nervous, "I'll be there before you can say 'zing'!"

He disconnected before Johnny saw him blush over the video phone.

He turned back to face Elona as he returned his phone to his pocket, blushing and clearly reluctant to leave.

"I'm sorry, I-I have to go. Hotel stuff, you know."

"I understand, Count. What's happening?"

"Something about the tennis court. And please, call me Drac, all my friends do."

Elona blushed at that, Dracula was starting to think of her as a friend. Maybe something more.

"Okay," she said a bit shyly, "Only if you call me Elona."

He smiled, not wanting to leave. He would have preferred she stayed where she was, looking quite beautiful, for a human, in the starlight.

He committed the image to memory as he suddenly changed into bat form and flew away.

At the moment, both felt strangely both disappointed and relieved of what almost happened.

Elona wasn't quite sure which she had preferred, but she had to push the thought of the possibility of being with Dracula away, as she already had her heart broken once and didn't want to go through that pain again. It was better to at least have a friend who wasn't going to turn her away because of her condition, despite how even more usual that friend may be.

She then touched her lips feather light with her finger tips.


	11. Chapter 11 Awkward Encounters

Awkward Encounters

Dracula arrived at the tennis court and changed to himself in a puff of indigo and purple mist, and what he saw shocked and outraged him as he shouted, "What the hell happened here?!"

The tennis court was in absolute chaotic shambles with the chain link fence broken and torn like powerful claws had torn through them, and the remains hung askew from bent and dented posts. The nets were all torn to shreds, alongside nearly unrecognizable tennis rackets and the ground looked like something tried to tear and dig it all apart with powerful little claws. In one corner the remains of the tennis ball machine was completely destroyed, like it had been turned inside out and the mechanisms were crushed and ripped to smithereens, while yellow fuzz was all that was left of the balls which now carpeted the ground.

Dracula saw Johnny there, along with a shocked and saddened Wayne and a few humans who were there for their signed up tennis lesson with the werewolf.

The Vampire went up to the werewolf with a deep frowning glare and asked in a dangerous whisper, "Wayne, did your pups do this? Do you not remember what happened last time I told you to get them under control?"

"No, Drac, I swear," the nervous werewolf held up his large paws in surrender, "They're still shaken from that scolding you gave them, they haven't rampaged in a while, and I want to enjoy it while I can."

Looking Wayne straight and deep in the eyes, Dracula knew his old friend was telling the truth, so his expression softened a bit. He gave a groaning sigh as he took his phone again and called the main reception desk to send a zombie repair crew to the tennis court and close it down until it was done being repaired.

"How long will that take, Your Eminence?" asked one of the humans a bit meekly with a tone of disappointment.

Dracula, feeling a rising angered tension at the whole thing, tried to say calmly and reassuringly, "Zombies can be a bit slow, but I will see that it will take no more than a day or two."

Wayne and the humans still looked disappointed, and seeing this Dracula got a thoughtful look as he turned back to Johnny and asked him, "What's the schedule for activities in the Auditorium?"

Johnny scrolled through his phone's listings and said happily, "All human appropriate activities for the Auditorium end at midnight. But there's an opening now because there weren't enough people signed up for the 11pm game of Charades."

Dracula momentarily moped at that, as Charades was always one of his favorite games, but then instructed, "Alright, Johnny, have the zombies set up the extra tennis equipment in the Auditorium for Wayne and his human students."

"On it, Drac," Johnny said enthusiastically as he gave a thumbs up, and put out the call.

Wayne and his human students thanked him happily as they left, but he just gave a polite nod as he tried to hold in a rising burning tension that churned his stomach and tightened at his chest.

"Mr. Hyde and a crew of repairzombies are on the way, Drac," Johnny said with a smile, but his father-in-law didn't seem to hear him as Dracula just stood still like a dark statue.

Johnny slowly went up to him in concern, "Drac? Hey, buddy, I got the staff to set up the tennis stuff in the Auditorium, and the repair crew is on the way. Are you okay?"

He gently place on hand on the Vampire's shoulder hoping he was still able to hear him, but Dracula suddenly turned his face to Johnny with a dangerous snarl as his eyes glowed the deepest blood red in their entirety, like the eyes of a demon. Johnny gave a frightful yelp as he jumped back and held his hand up in a fearful keep away gesture to Dracula.

Seeing this, Dracula squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head and opened his eyes again to normal.

"Johnny?" he breathed low, and touched his head as though confused or disoriented.

Seeing Dracula might be his normal self again, Johnny approached him cautiously as he asked slowly, "Drac, are you okay? What's going on with you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," Dracula said quickly as he looked at his hand and flexed his fingers, "I…I have to go. Take care of this, okay? Thanks."

He shifted to bat form and flew away, Johnny could only watch with a confused and concerned look, while Dracula could only think he needed to regain control and quickly get to the bottom of all this vandalism and stop it before things got out of hand.

A few hours later, a certain hunchback monster had been reassigned from plumbing to the repair crew to help with rebuilding the tennis court. The repairs had reached a slow point, and Quasimodo took this small chance to step away to a far corner and speak with his 'partner.'

"What were you thinking?!" he demanded hotly with an angered whisper, "I told you we had to cease with vandalism and sabotage for a while!"

Bela just snarled as he crossed his winged arms, while Esmeralda glared at him.

"I thought it was all part of your 'grand plan'," Bela said sarcastically, "Besides, I had a personal score to settle with this place. And I thought you'd show me a little more appreciation after I told you about what I heard about that human, maybe put it to good use for this plan of yours, or doesn't that matter?"

Quasimodo grunted with growing frustration and was about scold the little Bat Demon, but then a gravelly British accented voice yelled to him, "Oy, Wilson! Watcha doin' over there? This ain't no time for a coffee break! Get back to work!"

The hunchback gave a groaning sigh as he momentarily stared off at the larger yellow-green skinned monster man, who just stared hard back at him with his long arms crossed in dead seriousness.

"I'll not fall behind schedule 'cause you wanted to sit on yer arse all night, and I'll not risk the Count's wrath! Clean up the wrecked fence over there!"

Mr. Hyde pointed to the torn metal wired fence Quasimodo was standing near, and the hunchback put his yellow hard hat back on and set back to work with a growing grudge, Bela smirked a little at this as he flew off and watched from a nearby tree.

Elsewhere in the hotel, the little werewolf called Warren found his sister, Winnie, playing with her zing, and best friend, Dennis. He went up to them and asked,

"Hey, Winnie, have you seen Bela, our little play bat buddy?"

Her young face twisted a bit in anger at the mention of the former lead Bat Crony's name, and rarely participated in all her brothers' rampaging playing with the vile creature.

Still she couldn't help but wonder…

"Sorry, Warren," she said, "I have seen that dummy since the last time you guys all tried to catch it."

Warren could only give a shrug as he scampered off to look elsewhere.

Winnie then looked back at Dennis as he said, "I think it's funny what Grampa Vlad did to him."

"Yeah, maybe," Winnie said with some doubt, "But I don't wanna think about Mr. Ugly right now. You were telling me about this human girl you think Uncle Drac likes."

"Yeah," Dennis piped up, "Her name's Elona, isn't that a pretty name? And she looks a lot like my Gramma. So what do you say, Winnie, you wanna help me get them together so Papa Drac won't be so sad and lonely?"

"You know I'll do anything for you, my Zing," she said lovingly as she held his hand and they smiled playfully to each other and giggled.

A simple plan of matchmaking by them was in the works.

At least another two days later, in her hotel room, Elona dimmed the lights a little, just enough to not look like a black silhouette and hopefully not give away where she was, and readied her laptop/tablet as she got it ready to Skype someone she hadn't talked to in a while.

There came a few small rings as she waited, then the face of a somewhat older woman with similar medium brown hair in a pixie cut, an attractive rounded face and walnut brown eyes appeared on Elona's screen.

"Ellie," she happily, "I'm so glad you're finally calling again, I haven't heard from you in a couple of months. Where are you, anyway?"

Elona gave a breath and said, "It's nice to see you, too, Liz. I'm still in Eastern Europe, somewhere in Romania."

"Still going to be vague, are you. When are you coming home, anyway? The kids miss their favorite aunt."

"I don't know, I don't think I will. There's nothing left for me in Chicago anymore, Liz, you know that."

"Are you sure, Ellie? I think you're just running from your problems. Maybe you didn't look hard enough to find a new start here, it's your home, and I miss you. Mom and Dad don't talk about it too much, but I see subtle hints they feel guilty about driving you away, and they miss you, too."

Elona looked away for a moment as though to think, then said to her older sister, "I miss you all, too, but after how I was treated and how Dad thought of Jason, and you know Mom's conservative values…"

"I know."

Elona then used both hands to stroke back her hair as she gave a heavy deep breath and said, "Besides, I, uh,…I think I've met someone."

Liz just gave a bemused look as she scoffed, "Uh-huh, this isn't the first time you've told me about meeting a charming European guy, and then you go and tell me about all his flaws and why you don't want another relationship. So let's just get it over with. Does he not smell right? Are his eyes too close together? Does he chew his food too loudly?"

Elona gave her sister a look of annoyance and said, "This is different. I mean, I don't know, he's different."

"Really, how?" Liz asked skeptically.

"Well," Elona began, "He actually seems to really like me, and not see me as a naïve American woman looking to get laid."

"Really?" Liz said with piqued interest, "Who is he, what's his name? What does he do?"

Elona hesitated, how or what could she tell Liz without revealing it to be the legendary Count Dracula? If Liz didn't freak out about it, she would still most likely laugh at her about it.

"Well, uh, he prefers his privacy so I really shouldn't tell you his name, but uh, he's a humble hotel manager."

"A hotel manager?"

"Yeah, his castle is also the hotel, so he's of real noble European blood, a real Count in fact."

"Wow," Liz breathed in disbelief, "A hotel manager but still a real Count. Sounds like a keeper. What does he look like, if you can't tell me his name, is he cute?"

"Gorgeous," Elona breathed dreamily, "I-I mean, uh, yeah, really, really cute. Pretty tall, maybe 6'4'' or 6'5'', and somehow gracefully slender but also well built."

"Keep going," Liz teased, "He does sound pretty dreamy, already. What about hair or eyes, is he bronze with a sexy tan?"

"No," Elona scoffed, "But he does have nice skin, almost pale and flawless like fresh mountain snow, and he's got the smoothest blackest hair like a starless night sky," she gave a deep dreamy sigh as she continued, "And the most amazing blue eyes I've ever seen, like I'm looking at the ocean at night and they glow almost like pure icy sapphires."

"Wow," Liz droned out with more conviction, if still in wide eyed disbelief, "He sounds too good to be true. I hope he at least has a personality to go with the looks, and not just pompous upper class shallowness."

"Oh, far from it surprisingly. He's actually charming and mysterious in a way, like one of those old fashioned gentleman types. He can be a little stubborn and arrogant, but still humble enough. He can also be pretty sarcastic, and kind of funny about it in a way."

"Sounds complex," Liz teased.

"Yeah, but in a good way," Elona said a bit defensively, "Though he can also be a little over controlling, but I figure that comes with the job of running a hotel, and being a single father raising a daughter."

"Oh, he had a kid," Liz said with a bit of disappointment, "But he's still single? Divorced?"

"Widowed, actually," Elona said, "His wife died a long time ago, I don't know how, but I know it's still painful for him. And it's why I think it's one reason I don't think it'll go anywhere with him, 'cause you know how most widowed people still love their spouses and take vows never to love another. I think we're better off just friends."

Liz's face twisted a bit as she said sternly, "Don't sell yourself short, Sis, he sounds great, and if he can't see that, he's an idiot. And I think you deserve happiness with a great guy, and not an ass like Jason. Dad still approves of him and still thinks you'll get back together with him, despite your 'misunderstanding.'" Liz did quotes with her fingers, and Elona got positively disgusted.

"Oh, for crying out loud," she yelled with growing anger, "I can't believe Dad thinks that…!"

"Forget about it, Ellie," her sister tried to calm her, "This guy sounds way better anyway, and I think you should give it a chance, see where this goes."

"Mommy, I'm home," came a child's voice over the call, and Liz said, "Gotta go, Sis, call more often, okay? Let me know how it goes. Bye, Ellie."

"Bye, Liz." And Elona closed her computer and leaned back on her bed, her thoughts wandering back to Dracula, and she suddenly wondered what he was up to right now.

She decided to go see him, and wondered if she could talk to him about reconsidering her suggestion for a Christmas party at the hotel.

In those same couple of days, hardly anyone had seen Dracula off and on because he had been planning something special for his friends, something he called 'Payback by Drac.'

In the Grand Ballroom, he hung upside down from the ceiling in bat form as one of his spider employees came up to him and said a little nervously, "Everything's ready, Boss. Are you sure about this?"

"Oh, yes," he said with a snicker and wicked smile, "When one or all of them walk in here, BOOM! They won't know what hit them, and then they'll learn the real meaning of a practical joke!"

He chuckled a bit evilly again as he rubbed his wings together in great anticipation, all too eager to see what he had planned unfold.

Soon, someone did wander in the Ballroom, but it wasn't any of the Drac Pack, instead it was Elona and Dracula gasped with shock and worry as he swooped down to grab her.

Elona looked around the Ballroom, impressed with its size and ornate if simple Gothic décor as she could picture a wonderful and flamboyant Holiday party unfolding here. The next thing she knew, billowing blue and purple mist seemed to appear out of nowhere with a familiar figure, and with a swish of a long cape Elona gave a brief startled yelp as the fog encompassed her and she was once more in a now familiar embrace as they flew quickly up to the ceiling.

Dracula had his long cool hand over her mouth for a moment as he whispered to her, "Keep quiet."

But she could only give an annoyed and confused look as she whispered to him, "What's going on? Why are we up here?"

But he shushed her as he whisper with a wicked smile, "Shh. Watch this."

Elona just looked down for some moments, but nothing seemed to happen, but then she saw several more people come in, Dracula's friends she had seen last week after they pulled that explosive powder prank on him.

"Why do you think Drac wanted to meet us in here?" Murray said curiously.

"I don't know," replied Wayne said with a shrug, "Maybe he just wanted to show us something for the next party he's throwing."

"I don't know about that, Wayne," Frank said unsure with a bit of tenseness in his massive shoulders, "I have a bad feeling about this."

In a dark corner of the ceiling, Dracula gave a nearby spider employee a nod and she gave a signal to her sisters.

"Where is Drac, anyway?" Wayne asked confused, when all of a sudden he felt a strong inching sensation, not noticing the heavy sprinkling of a powdery substance snow on him from above and he just started scratching himself like crazy.

"What's the matter, Wayne, you have fleas all of a sudden?" asked Murray jokingly.

The werewolf gave the mummy a dirty look, while the mummy then noticed something shiny on the floor as he asked, "Hey, what's that?" and he went to investigate, not knowing it was just a reflection of light off of a small mirror held by one of the spiders and not noticing another tiny spider had taken a piece of his bandage and stuffed it into Frank's pants and they started to come undone as he walked to see the shiny thing.

Frank saw this and tried to stop Murray as he pulled the bandage out of his pants, but with a yank the mummy spun fast and was suddenly much thinner.

"Hey!" Murray yelled in embarrassed outrage, "What'd you do that for?"

Frank just shrugged like 'it's wasn't me', but Murray glared at the golem while Griffin suddenly felt a slight pinch on his lower tush, not knowing it was one of the spiders again.

"Ow!" he cried, and his glasses gave a mad glare, "Alright, which one of you pinched me?"

Everyone shrugged again, but Griffin blamed an inching Wayne because of his sharp wolf claws and he was snickering.

"Oh, you think that's funny, wolf boy?" Griffin seethed, "I'm not the one scratching himself because he doesn't bathe from having fleas all the time."

"Hey!" Wayne cried, "I do _not_ have fleas! I don't know why I'm inching all of a sudden!"

Frank suddenly felt something hard hit him on his head, no one seeing it was a pan wrapped in spider webs that the spider decorating comity dropped on another signal from Dracula and then quickly pulled back up out of view.

"OW!" Frank cried loudly, and glared at his friend irksomely as he yelled, "Hey, who hit me? Why'd you hit my head?!"

Murray was just trying to take back his bandage wrappings as Frank then set his sights on the mummy and groaned at him madly, "Oh, you're trying to get back at me for you coming undone when I didn't do nothing!"

Murray just glared back at him as he gathered up his wrappings, but Frank grabbed an end and yanked hard, making the mummy spin like a crazy whirlwind again and was suddenly a much thinner version of himself, much like their flight on Blobby a month or so ago.

From above, none of them saw Dracula snickering through his teeth, while with Elona in his arm she was torn between berating him and laughing with him as what she saw was getting pretty funny. He then gave another signal to the spiders.

Invisible to the Drac Pack's eyes, a few small swarms of spiders started crawling up their legs and skittered all over their bodies, even on Griffin, making them all wince and starting to look like the Four Stooges as Murray gave a shriek thinking Wayne had tried to pinch or tickle him and slapped the werewolf in his long muzzle, making him growl and tried to kick Murray in retaliation, but missed as the mummy side stepped and Wayne kicked Frank in the nuts, making the usually gentle giant clasped in surprised pain between his legs and his brow furrowed as he tried to punch out the werewolf, but instead missed and hit a pile of Murray's bandages and making Griffin get entangled in them and give a glare with his glasses as he struggled and pushed against Murray as they dog piled onto Wayne as Murray actually tried to poke Griffin in the glasses, only to have an invisible hand block bandaged fingers. A werewolf fist hit them both on the head in growing irritation and annoyed anger, and Frank finally recovered from his ordeal and bashed Murray's and Wayne's heads together, not too hard of course, making them dizzy, and Wayne became so irritated, he growled and bit down hard on Frank's lower arm and tore it clean off as Murray and Griffin continued to struggle to get untangled from the mess of loose bandages, but one of their arms went flying too high and actually knocked poor Frank's head clear off his shoulders as the entire Drac Pack then became entangled in a mess of bandages as spiders continued to swarm them.

Dracula laughed loudly at all this, and gave a final wave to his arachnid employees, making several things happen all at once.

A net of spider webs fell on top of the entire Drac Pack, making them struggle further and making their entanglement even worse as a pile of tennis balls fell from another net on the ceiling and made Wayne just go crazy with playful doggie excitement as he barked and started chasing the nearest tennis balls and catching them with his mouth, dragging the rest of the Drac Pack with him with amazing wolf strength, and they were dragged so hard the rest of poor Frank fell to pieces as Wayne ran around the Grand Ballroom, and at the same time a few more people walked into the ballroom.

The werewolf finally caught several balls in his muzzle and continued running around the room and nearly ran into an arriving Vlad, who glared at the werewolf a bit coldly, making him slide hard across the floor and stopped just short of crashing into the elder Vampire and the rest of Dracula's family, but the rest of the Drac Pack crashed into Wayne from behind, and they created an entangle dog pile of bandages and spider webs.

Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis couldn't help but burst out laughing at them, and were joined by Dracula and Elona, who was laughing quite hard despite her personal disapproval, as he floated down from above and all his friends gave him surprised looks.

But Vlad was far less amused as he just growled out, "What the bat hell is going on in here?"

But Dracula hardly heard his father as he just wiped some tears of laughter from his eyes, still holding to Elona as she tried gently to separate herself from his embrace and walked a couple of steps backwards away from him and turned to face Vlad unexpectedly.

"Aah!" she gave a brief screech, and clasped her chest to calm down as she said quickly, "I'm so sorry, sir, that was rude of me."

Vlad just gave her a look with a raise wispy white eyebrow as Dracula leaned over still laughing hysterically.

"I knew this was going to happen," Frank's head groaned.

"Oh, yeah, Baby!" Dracula said loudly with excitable smugness as he gave the last of his hysterical laughing, "That's how you pull off a prank! Oh, hey, Dad, what brings you here?"

"'Dad'?" Elona said confused again and looked back at Vlad.

"Vladimir Dracula, at your service, Ma'am," he introduced himself in a gentlemanly fashion as he took Elona's hand in his cool gnarled and wrinkled one, which she found surprisingly soft and nice, and he lightly kissed it, making her chuckle. Unlike the way Quasimodo did it, she actually felt flattered instead of making her skin crawl with discomfort, although she also got this feel he was giving her the once over.

"Nice to meet you, sir. My name's Elona Parker."

"I hear my son has taken a liking to you," he said, making Elona and Dracula freeze for a moment at the elder Vampire's sudden statement, as he then continued with a berating tone, "Although I'm not sure what you might see in him, as he's acting like a complete child doing things like. Is that the sort of example you set for your daughter and grandson?"

Even though Elona knew Dracula was the real McCoy now, and had to be hundreds of years old, it was still a bit difficult to get it into her head he was a grandfather as well as a father. Maybe it was because he looked so young for his age.

"Dad," he groaned with slump, "It's just a prank between friends."

"I don't care, you're too old to be doing such childish shenanigans," Vlad said bluntly with parental authority, "And stop slouching."

"I'm not slouching," Dracula retorted to his father as he quickly straightened his posture, "And this was payback for a prank they pulled on me last week."

"I don't care who did what, it stops now while I'm here," he stated, as the rest of the Drac Pack started snickering at seeing Dracula being scolded by his own father like a little kid. The elder Vampire then looked at them and said bluntly,

"I should berate you four for encouraging such foolishness, but it looks like you've been punished enough so it'll have to wait. For now."

He gave Dracula a look, and his son once more shouted out, "Housekeeping!"

Housekeeping witches flew into the Grand Ballroom and took the entangled Drac Pack away to help them get free and cleaned up.

For a few moments, they all stood in awkward silence until Mavis finally said, "Isn't it nice to have Grampa Vlad visiting again."

"What brings you here, anyway, Dad?" Dracula asked with a less than happy groan.

Vlad gave a friendly smile as he said, "I just thought I'd drop by and surprise you, son, and perhaps meet the lady who has enchanted my boy."

"Me?" Elona said surprised as she pointed to herself, even Dracula went a bit wide eyed at this, "You wanted to meet me?"

"Of course," Vlad said with a smile, "Mavis and Johnny came to see me a few days ago for a visit, and told of rumor saying you and Drac might've Zinged."

"Uh, I don't know about that," she said uncomfortably, "Drac and I are just friends."

"But I know Papa Drac likes you," Dennis piped up, "Don't you like Papa Drac, Miss Elona?"

Elona and Dracula could only blush brightly at the little Vampire's question, Dracula then gave an awkward smile as he put an arm around Elona's shoulder, which for some reason she didn't mind, and he told him,

"Of course, Denisovich, but as a friend, like she said. Yes, friends, we're just friends."

For some reason, the words 'just friends' left a bad taste in his mouth, but he didn't want to show his family.

"Nuh-uh, Papa Drac," Dennis said wily as he shook his cherub head, "You're a Dracula, and you can't just be friends with a pretty human girl like Miss Elona next to you."

Dracula tensed a bit, smiling crookedly and a light sweat broke on his forehead at having his own words thrown back at him as he tried to insist, "Really, Denisovich, where did you get such an idea? Miss Parker and I really are just friends."

"If you say so, Drac," Vlad said with a doubtful shrug.

Dracula then looked back at Elona curiously and asked, "What are you doing here, anyway?"

She gave an uncomfortable shrug again as she said, "Just exploring again, but I was told you were in here for some reason and, uh, well, I was hoping to talk to you about reconsidering having a Christmas party."

He gave a bit of a hard look as he removed his arm from her shoulders and said a bit bluntly, "I thought that matter was settled. I'm not doing it."

"No," Elona said, "You just outright didn't even want to consider it, and I just think you should just think about it you want better relations between monsters and humans."

"Yeah, Drac, c'mon, just think about it for a little while," said Johnny, a bit timidly as he remembered what happened the other night, "But you'd have to decide soon, because it could take months of planning because it can be very demanding and elaborate."

"Please, Dad?" Mavis pleaded, hoping she had some pull with her ever doting father.

"I don't know, Mavy," he said, "I have my reasons for not wanting to do it, considering what that humany holiday is supposed to celebrate."

"And for that reason alone, I'd agree with you, son," Vlad said, making everyone look at him like it was decided a party wasn't going to happen, but then he said, "However, I should know about a change of heart and how the world has changed, too, despite how uncomfortable with it I still am. I think they're right about you just thinking about it, Drac."

"Because, if you don't, Drac," Johnny said with some bluntness in his tone, "Mavis, Dennis, and I will actually consider moving away. Not to California, just to the family cottage in town where my family stayed when they visited for Christmas last year."

Dracula gave a shocked look at his son-in-law, and saw Johnny meant it and the look on Mavis' face showed the same seriousness.

Dracula seemed to give a frown as he saw how his own family was pressuring him into this ridiculous idea.

"Fine, I'll think about it," he groaned with disappointment, and everyone gave some cheers.

"Thank you, Drac," Elona said with a smile, "I think it would mean the world to everyone if this party is a success."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Elona," he said, "I just said I'd think about it. Although, if you stayed, I'm sure such a party would light up if you were there."

She blushed again at that, but then got so nervous she stammered out, "Uh, I-I should go. It was nice to meet you, Vladimir, sir."

And she quickly left with awkwardness in her step, Dracula watching with some confusion and disappointment and the other with puzzled looks.

Not far from the Grand Ballroom, Elona slowed her rushed walk and took a deep breath to just gather her thoughts, not sure what to think at suddenly meeting Dracula's father. She had just met the guy and his family last week, and now she was meeting his father? It was just a little too much for her to process right now.

She didn't get much further when she seemed to bump into someone again and she said, "Excuse me, I'm so sorry."

She then got a sinking feeling when she saw who it was she had bumped into, the creepy Quasimodo.

" _Bonsuir, Madamoiselle._ So pleasant to see you again," he said with a creepy politeness that seemed off to Elona, " 'Tis I who should be pardoned, as I didn't expect to see you again so soon, a lovely creature like yourself."

"Uh, okay," she said with some suspicion.

"How have you enjoyed your stay at Hotel Transylvania?" he asked with continued awkward politeness.

"It's been…interesting, but I don't know if I can stay much longer," Elona told him with nervousness.

"And why's that, Madamoiselle?"

"That's…personal."

"Ah, I understand, 'tis not easy for monsters and humans to be interacting together. Perhaps we should be separate worlds again, no? Segregation worked perfectly well in ze past, and could work again, wi?"

"What? No," Elona said outraged, "It's not like that at all, it's just, I need to sort out my feelings, I need to clear my thoughts."

"Perhaps a little time in ze spa again will help to clear your mind, no?" Quasimodo suggested.

"As a matter of fact, you read my mind." Elona said good-bye to him, but had this feeling she just needed to get away from Quasimodo, while behind her he gave a wicked smirk.

Let the humans enjoy themselves while they can, but now he's going to start another part of his plan to discredit Dracula; spreading nasty gossip and rumors to fuel the fans of doubt and fear.


	12. 12 Rumors, Suspicions, & Misconceptions

Rumors, Suspicions, and Misconceptions

Elona finally made it to the spa sauna, wearing nothing but a soft white cotton towel with the hotel logo on it, and she found the design of the sauna continued with its Gothic feel as the sauna looked a little like a dungeon with hard stone walls and benches, rings on the walls for holding chains, and burning rocks in one corner, and the steam was powered by some kind of fire breathing dragon.

She went to make herself comfortable on one of the hard granite stone slabs, and just decided to try and relax so she could clear her thoughts, and sort out her feelings, figure out what she wanted and where to go from here, literally and emotionally.

Unknown to her, another figure made his way to the sauna, also wearing nothing but a cotton towel with the hotel logo, in order to calm down and sort his own thoughts as well. He entered the sauna and closed the door not seeing someone else in the sauna with him through the thick steam, and only realized he wasn't alone until he heard a female voice say in surprise,

"Hello? Who's there?"

Dracula turned to Elona sitting on the other side of the sauna, both freezing in place, despite the heat of the steam.

"Elona?" he gasped low, "What you doing in my sauna?"

" _Your_ sauna?" she gasped in embarrassment, "I'm sorry, I thought this was the hotel sauna. I'll leave."

Just outside, a moment just after Dracula entered the sauna, two precocious young people had followed them to the hot steamy sauna, and a little red headed boy locked the door with a touch, and smiled mischievously to his little were pup friend, and she gave a thumbs up.

Elona tried to turn the knob, but found it locked tightly, making her give a low gasp as she clung to her towel more tightly around herself; Dracula just gave a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, it's locked," she said with a nervous chuckle, "Would you mind, uh, if you could, uh…"

"No, no, no," he said reassuringly, "It's alright, I don't mind if you stay."

That wasn't exactly what she had in mind, and found herself wanting to stay for some strange reason as she eyed Dracula up and down in nothing but a towel, and could tell he had a very nice and healthy build.

For Dracula, he tried to push away thoughts of what Elona looked like without her own towel, as he could tell she had very nicely toned arms, shoulders, and long dancer's legs, and somehow she had a nice rack as well.

Not knowing what to do, Elona just gave a nervous smile and said low, "Uh, okay. I'll just, uh, sit over here."

She sat down at a corner near the sauna door, and brought her knees up to her chest and hugged herself tightly. Dracula was a little confused by this, but took a seat on the same stone bench a respectful distance from her.

For some long minutes, they just remained awkwardly silent, but Dracula really wanted to talk to her. About anything, really.

So off the top of his head, he just said, "So, you once said you hate vampire movies. I might understand why with some, like this 'twilight' stuff I've heard about. Pttf, I saw one scene and that told me everything."

"Oh, don't get me started," Elona laughed.

Dracula briefly laughed with her, then she went silent again for some long moments, then said, "Well, there's more to it than that. But, I don't want to offend you."

He gave a slightly insulted look, but just said, "It's alright, I'm no stranger to human prejudice and persecution. Maybe I could straighten any misconceptions you have about my kind from movies."

She glanced at him for a moment, giving an apprehensive smile, then said, "Well, a few years ago vampire movies were all the rage, but I thought they were overkill and highly overrated. I found myself thinking what could be so great about Vampires, anyway? They only see humans as a food source, and to me that said what they did bordered on cannibalism; backward, savage, primitive, and unnecessary. But maybe, it's the arrogance I couldn't stand, as though they were portrayed as demi-gods with no integrity, or morals or something, when personally I find the price of being one too high."

She didn't see Dracula give her an insulted look, as expected as he slowly came closer to her and he just asked, "In what way, how can being a Vampire have too high a price?"

"Well," she said low, knowing fully well who she was talking to, "I guess on the shallow end, as much as I love Astronomy, I'm a day person, and I know the Sun is greatly essential to all life on Earth. Plus, I really like Italian food, and I don't know, immortality sounds too selfish and highly overrated, and far too lonely if you out live everyone you've cared for."

Dracula remained silent as he slowly scooched a bit closer to her, and she continued, "And I suppose the highest is losing my soul, not in the sense you'd think, but I mean what really makes someone truly human; being kind and compassionate, loving and respecting those around you, doing what's right without expecting anything but knowing what you did what was right in return, and having a curiosity about all the amazing things to explore and experience. To me, that's what it really means to be human."

She suddenly realized she might be preaching or rambling, and cleared her throat as she continued, "Anyway, as I said it's the arrogance I couldn't stand, as the movie Vampires never seemed to consider life in its many forms is a precious gift, and they were just being all 'Hey, look at me I'm gonna live forever because I drink blood and humans are meant to be my slaves, all because I can.'"

Dracula was still silent, and indeed insulted, but more in the sense of how human entertainment colored her view of Vampires. But what was really nerving was in some small ways, some of it was true.

He gave a small laugh as he said, "Well, to clear one thing, I can eat Italian food and it is really good, I just can't have garlic because I'm allergic, it makes my throat swells."

He touched at his long neck as she gave a small laugh and he then continued, "And I can go out in the day light, as long I'm well protected, Johnny showed me and Mavis something called 'sunscreen,' and I stay out of sunlight as it does burn us but it doesn't turn us to ash in an instant, it gradually burns us, so it's more of a very painful inconvenience than anything else."

He then became silent for some moments again as he gave some thought of what to say next, then finally said, "And I do admit I have been and can be a little arrogant sometimes, I've done things in the past I'm not proud of, but Vampires need to drink blood like humans need to drink water, or certain kinds of animals can only eat plants or meat, though even I need and enjoy a cool glass of water when I need to. And you met my dad, Vampires can live a lot longer than humans, but not forever forever, just a couple thousand years or so, and we just age a lot slower. As to enslavement of humans, or only seeing them as food…well, that would take too long to clear up right now, but like I said, I've done things in the past I'm not proud of, so that's something to talk about for another time right now."

"Okay," Elona said low, though her curiosity was piqued.

Dracula then told her, "I am still learning about how much the human world has changed since after I built my hotel, and I used to think all humans ever wanted to do was only destroy all of monster kind, like getting fatter so they could over power us, or started wearing less clothing for more movement to strangle us, and cut off monster heads and put candy in them."

"What?" Elona laughed at the misguided beliefs and misconceptions he just told her, and he gave a small laugh with her.

"So we both had our misconceptions about things," he admitted, "As I now know some humans just have some trouble with food or something, and less clothing is just taste in fashion or to be cooler in the warmer seasons, and putting candy in monster heads is just a weird human term of endearment for monster kind during Halloween or the town's Monster Festival."

"Heh, heh," Elona laughed low, "My siblings and I loved Halloween, but my mom can be so old fashion she wouldn't allow any of us to dress up as the more fun stuff like zombies, witches, or even vampires, always saying 'they're too scary for her good little children,' and she would almost throw a fit if I or my sister wore clothes she thought were too revealing. One time, I wore a tank top that showed off my midriff and my mom was all like, 'Elona Martha, you're not going anywhere dressed like a tramp.' But it was like 90 degrees outside at that time, and a lot of girls still dress that way these days."

Dracula went wide eyed, not entirely sure he heard her right.

"Y-your middle name is…Martha?" he asked low.

"Yeah," she said with a bit of a huff, "I never liked it, because it's such a mouth full. Elona Martha?"

She glimpsed at Dracula, who looked at her with a bit of a dropped expression.

"I-I mean, uh, it's fine as a first name, I mean no disrespect to your late wife. But as a middle name? I just never liked it. I only kept it because my mom said I was named after a great-great aunt of hers who was a strong woman who was part of the Suffragist movement and for women's rights over a hundred years ago, and she was always an inspiration to my mom. That I can respect and admire, too, but I just never really liked my middle name."

"I think it's lovely," Dracula commented to her tenderly, making her give a small smile.

"Thanks, but I don't know if I can live up to such a legacy anymore," she said sadly, "I'm alone and on my own, always wishing I was someone else."

"You don't have to be," he seemed to whisper tenderly as Elona suddenly felt him lightly and softly stroking her upper arm with his the back of his knuckles, making her gasp softly and flinch at his very touch and how close he now was to her as she gave him a slightly frightful look, making him scooch back a bit on the stone bench.

It was strange, as she felt such a warm gentleness from his cooled knuckles, and as she looked at him, she was a bit surprised to actually see him sweat, the perspiration was strangely like a crystal opalescent sheen on his pale smooth skin.

She suddenly felt so nervous, she practically ran to the door in two steps as she stammered out, "I-I really should go."

She tried to open the door again, but it was still locked and she suddenly felt his hand on her should as he said with a tone colored with desperation, "No, please don't go. I know we've disagreed and argued, but I actually enjoy your company."

Elona looked at him, a mix of flattery and apprehension swirled within her as she asked, "Really, why?"

Dracula seemed to hesitate for a moment as he thought about how to answer, and finally he said, "Well, you've made me think a little deeper about things, and you seem easy to talk to when you open up. And you, … well, I…"

"Yes?" she breathed as their eyes locked to each other and everything just seemed to stop, as though each tried to gaze deep into the others' soul.

Dracula and Elona were just silent as he slowly leaned down to her as his eyes half closed and she just stood in place, both controlled by a force neither understood, nor could they resist, even if they wanted to.

The towels that barely concealed their bodies began to loosen as their faces got closer and their eyes closed and their arms slowly began to entwine.

There was then the click of an unlocking door, and it opened with a creak as two more figures walked in, and Elona and Dracula quickly pushed away at each other to separate and were on opposite sides of the sauna as Vlad and Frank walked in with slightly puzzled looks.

"Drac, what's going on in here?" Frank asked he saw them tighten their towels again.

A long second of awkward silence seemed to pass and both Elona and Dracula seemed to blush through their perspiration.

"I, uh, I was just leaving," Elona stammered as she walked between Frank, in nothing but a towel, and Vlad, who wore a white cotton robe, and looked at Elona with a raise wispy eyebrow and she just looked back at him nervously.

When she was gone, Frank and Vlad looked at Dracula, but he just scowled at them.

At least another two nights later, Mavis and Johnny were alone upon the hotel roof for some alone time and fresh air and Johnny had a look of deep thought upon his youthful face, and Mavis put a pale hand on his shoulder as she said,

"It's still bothering you. Tell me again what happened."

"I don't know, Mavis," Johnny said low, "Your dad can be scary sometimes, even if he doesn't mean to be, but this. The way he snarled at me, and his eyes. It happened so fast, but it was like he wasn't your dad, but more like something else, something…sinister, or almost evil."

"How?" Mavis asked with worry, "Like he was what, Johnny?"

"I don't know, like the monster humans used to think he was. Almost like, I guess there's no other way for me to describe it, and I'm sorry, Hon, but it was like he was the old Dracula of Bram Stoker's book, or an evil demon was looking through his eyes."

Mavis was silent for a minute at this, thinking about how Johnny described her father.

"Well, he's okay now, but maybe I can talk to him and see if he will tell me what's going on with him. But maybe he's just stressed, you know, from all those accidents from the last few weeks, that's understandable. Maybe it's also because he's being stubborn and won't tell Elona how he really feels, everybody can see it, so why won't he? And speaking of Elona, do you really think she could be a reincarnation of my mom?"

There was a tone of hope in her voice, and Johnny just gave her a small smile as he said, "Maybe, it's a nice thought, though, but it doesn't mean she'll know who you are or Drac at first sight. For all I know, I'm the reincarnation of a clown from Barnum and Bailey's old circus, or worse a boring couch potato guy who never got out and did anything."

"Well, the clown part might explain a few things," Mavis teased him, and they laughed together, but then Mavis became a little serious again as she said, "But I also get this feeling there's more to her, something she hides, and isn't telling anyone, you notice how she gets guarded and scared sometimes, Eunice and Wanda told me about how they first met her."

"Maybe, Mav," Johnny agreed, "And whatever it is, I think she'll tell us when she's ready."

"I hope so, I just so want things to work out between her and Dad."

Johnny gently embraced her and held her close for a time.

Another two days went by, and things didn't entirely improve with guest attendance to the hotel as separate groups of humans from groups of monsters would talk low with each other, and families of both monsters and humans checked out for fear of their safety from what they had heard.

Rumors and gossip had begun flying around that said humans secretly carried diseases that would kill an unsuspecting monster if they so much as touched a human, and humans gossiped that monsters also had unsanitary germs that were deadly to humans and monsters would use them to kill and eat humans. Because of these rumors, monsters and humans had stopped socializing and looked at each other with growing suspicion, making the guest count drop by nearly a third of what it was just a few days ago.

This began to greatly concern Dracula and his friends as they steadily saw the number get lower and lower, trying to determine what was going on.

That day, Elona was just walking through the hotel again from the pool area and through the lounge to see different small groups of segregated humans from monsters gossiping with each other about what they had heard. She then overheard a Gillman say to his monster friends as they glimpsed at her,

"I don't what it's supposed to be, but I heard if you touch certain kinds of humans, you'll get hives."

"I heard if you just shook hands with one, you'll die in agony," said a female gremlin.

"I heard in the gym they've always secreted an invisible mucus that's so deadly it can kill even Vampires and Werewolves, and it would kill them faster if they drank human blood," said a two horned yeti.

Elona stopped momentarily at all this, devastated hurt and anger grew within her as the monster group glimpsed to her and then tightened their little circle to hide from her view, and she walked off with a stomp in her step, but she didn't get too far as she almost again ran into a certain unsavory character again.

"It's distasteful, no, _Mademoiselle_?" Quasimodo said with pseudo sympathy, "To be talking about humans like that behind your backs, and not inviting you for a friendly chat."

She looked at Quasimodo with suspicion behind her hurt anger, but was becoming so upset by what she heard and suspected they were talking about she just blurted out with a hiss, "He promised. He said my secret was safe with him, but now I hear monsters talking about it. Why would he lie to me?"

"Pardon, _Mademoiselle_ , who do mean?" Quasimodo asked with faked curiosity, playing the naivety card.

"Dracula," she almost seethed, "I told him something very personal he said he'd keep between us, and somehow it got out."

"Oh, _Monseur_ Dracula. I'm not surprised, _Mademoiselle_ , 'tis unfortunate zat ze master has zis tendency to lie to zose he claims to care about," he said too casually.

"What do you mean?" Elona asked.

"He may be a good manager and master of ze castle," Quasimodo said, "But just to keep his only daughter safe, he had ze staff build a fake human village years ago, and had the zombie bellhops dress as an angry human mob in order to scare her into never leaving again. He then drove his daughter and her new human love apart because of his over controlling selfishness, and only wanted poor sweet Mavis to himself. And then not so long ago, I heard tell how he tried to make his grandson into a Vampire by throwing the poor little boy off a tall and rickety old tower to make him fly and he tried to hide it from his parents. Zen to make the boy a true Vampire, he possessed a human dressed as a friendly monster the little boy liked a lot into a scary demon to get the boy's fangs to grow. Wi, he makes promises, but then breaks them because of his arrogance to keep his family to himself. Makes one wonder, wi?"

Elona raised an eyebrow at the hunchback janitor. Dracula told her he had done things in the past he wasn't proud of, but all this sounded too outrageous as she had met Mavis and Johnny and they were really happy together, and she briefly saw the special bond Dracula had with Dennis. Something to her didn't add up.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked with suspicion, "For that matter, why am I talking to you? I was told you were trouble."

"Oh, you wound me, _Mademoiselle_ ," Quasimodo said with fake hurt as he placed a hand on his chest, "I merely show concern for a lovely creature as yourself as it is also rumored you captured ze master's fancy. I implore you, for your own good and happiness, avoid _Monseur_ Dracula, for he will only break your heart, as he has broken his own daughter's heart."

But Elona wasn't buying it, and as upset as she was for the gossip she heard, common sense told her something else.

"If any of what you just told me is true, I want to hear it from him," she told him firmly.

"But it is, _Mademoiselle_ , everybody at ze hotel knows it."

"We'll see." And she just walked off away from him, not seeing his little maniacal smirk.

Elona was making her way through the hotel passed the spa again when Eunice walked quickly up to her and said, "Hello, Elona, darling, what's your hurry?"

"I'm looking for Dracula," she said bitterly, "I need to talk to him about something, give him a piece of my mind."

Eunice gave a look of confusion and concern as she asked, "Why? What's he done that's made you so mad?"

"He broke a promise he made me," she said bitterly, "I told him something personal, and he said he'd keep my secret. And now I'm hearing monsters gossiping about humans carrying diseases that'll kill them."

Eunice scoffed as she said, "Pay no mind to that garbage, honey. As much as I enjoy juicy dirt, all that's just mean spirited, and even I know it's untrue."

"That's right, Elona," said Wanda as she and the other women, Nefi and Carrol, walked up to her, "We've been around Johnny for years now, and none of us are sick. Someone's just trying to drive a wider rift between monsters and humans again."

Elona could only fume a bit, still upset by what was happening as she said, "Help me find him, I need to know what's going on from him."

The ladies all looked at each other in concern for their would be friend as they walked through the hotel with Elona and found Dracula in the Grand Ballroom with his family, including Vlad, and the rest of the Drac Pack, trying to convince him how this was the perfect place for the proposed Christmas party and what could be done here.

"Dracula, we need to talk," Elona demanded of the Vampire Count.

He at first gave a smile to seeing her again, almost blushing about what happened the other day, but it became a frown as he saw how mad she looked.

"Elona, what's wrong?" he asked and she grabbed his arm tightly and took him to another end of the Ballroom as she hissed to him,

"Why did you lie to me?" she seethed, but he just gave a confused look, "You promised you'd keep my secret safe, but now I'm hearing nasty rumors going around the monster guests that humans with give them hives or kill them if they touched humans."

Dracula glared and frowned as he said heatedly, "I have kept it, I didn't say anything. I don't know how it got out or who's spreading those rumors, but I didn't say anything. Besides, they concern me, too, as they've driven human and monster guests from my hotel, and it will ruin the supposed better relations we keep talking about."

"How do I know you're not lying to me now?" Elona almost yelled for the others to hear, "I just heard from that creepy Quasimodo that you're a liar and you did things to scare your own daughter, and did dangerous things just to turn your grandson into a Vampire, like toss him off a tower and possess some poor kid's performer into a demon or something."

Dracula could only freeze at these declarations, hurt and anger grew within him but he had to try and suppress it, and Eunice walked up to them as she said, "Elona, hon, I told you to stay away from that screwball hunchback. I told you he's nothing but trouble."

"I know," Elona tried to say calmly, "Which is why I want to hear it from you, Dracula, if you really broke your promise to me and if any of that other stuff is true."

Everyone gathered around them to hear what they have to say, both Elona and Dracula suddenly feeling a little pressured and not knowing what to do or say. Dracula even glanced at his father, and Vlad just gave him a small nod.

"Yes, those are all true, in a way," Dracula admitted, and he saw her tense as she gasped softly and glared at him, "But I swear to you, I never breathed a word about your secret. And I can explain about everything else."

"I don't know, Dracula," Elona said with clear doubt, "I want to believe you, to trust you, but how can I knowing I was told you're willing to lie to your own family, especially since my last boyfriend lied to me."

"Because he learned from his mistakes," Mavis jumped in, holding Dennis, with a smiling Johnny by her side.

"Yeah," Johnny said, "Drac might've made stupid mistakes before just to keep this family together, but he's a good guy who means well."

"And it took him a lot of guts to show me, his own old school father, how much more important family is than a pure Vampire bloodline," Vlad admitted, then said cheekily, "And this from a guy who pissed his bed as a boy and now always has to act like Mr. Tough Guy, heh, heh."

"Dad," Dracula groaned with embarrassment, making Elona try to hold in a laugh.

"So even if my dad didn't always think things through," Mavis said, "I understand he only meant well."

"Guys, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but this is between me and Elona," Dracula said firmly, but his family wasn't deterred.

"No, Dad, she has to know everything," Mavis said with determination.

And so, rather long stories were told, from the fake human village to how Dennis got his fangs, and Elona had to admit it was all pretty amazing, as well as eye rolling it should have been so obvious with all the drama as she lost most of her anger with him, but was still a little disappointed and perturbed with the whole moving thing and how Dracula miss handled the whole situation, as well as Mavis being overly protective with her own son.

"Didn't you all just try talking instead?" she asked.

Mavis could only shake her head as she said, "I can be as stubborn as my dad, and was just as over protective with Dennis."

"The most important lessons I learned from it all was my daughter's happiness, and accepting who everyone is in my family," Dracula said with a small smile to Elona, hoping she would understand, and she did with her own smile which made everyone else smile.

But it was quickly lost as she said with a hard tone, "I still want to know who ratted out my secret, I know those rumors are about me."

"What are you talking about, Dear?" asked Wanda, "Do you mean those nasty rumors about humans giving monsters killing diseases? What makes you think they're about you?"

Elona suddenly froze, not knowing what to do or say as more than a dozen eyes were now on her. She suddenly pushed her way through the small crowd to run, but she was suddenly immobilized mid step in the middle of the Ballroom and Mavis floated her back to the group. She then told Elona, whose eyes rapidly shifted in confusion to her frozen state, with a firm tone,

"I don't want to force you, Elona, but like my dad I learned I have to face my problems, and you don't have to face it alone. Now please, tell us what's going on?"

She released Elona from her petrified state, and she became frozen with fear as different monsters, and one human, whose judgment she feared the most, stared at her, and she could only hug herself tightly. She then felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she saw Dracula giving her a look of support as he said low and gently,

"It's your secret."

She took a deep breath and looked down in shame as she hugged herself tightly again, feeling vulnerable but not so alone with Dracula there. She might as well get it over with, and her bags were packed as always, ready for when she knew she had to inevitably leave.

"I don't want to be the cause of misunderstandings between humans and monsters here," she began, "But, monsters can't get deadly diseases from humans."

"Of that, we already know," Nefi said reassuringly.

"But I have a condition humans are afraid of getting," Elona continued with a shaky voice, "called HIV."

Most of the small crowd only gave confused looks, while Johnny went wide eyed, and breathed with some sympathy, "Oh, man. Elona, I'm so sorry."

"I don't understand," said Frank, "What's HIV?"

"It would take too long to explain, Frank," Griffin said, his glasses giving a look of sympathy, clearly he knew what it was, "But it stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and it's a rare if deadly disease that greatly weakens the healthy immune system, and can allow other diseases, even mild ones to infect someone and they become even deadlier for the infected. If they're not careful, even a mild cut could become easily infected and could eventually kill them, or even allow them to get cancers or HIV's worst version call AIDS. At least that's the layman's term for this disease."

"Oh, it that all," said Mavis.

"There's more to it, Mavy," Johnny said with a rare serious tone, "People have feared getting it for a long time, and it used to be believed that you could get it just by touching, such as hugging somebody or kissing. But it's actually passed on by forms of bodily fluid, such as blood."

Mavis gave a small look of shock, and looked back at Elona. No wonder the poor woman had been so guarded the whole time everyone had known her. Elona then told her story as she had told Dracula, and everyone gave her looks of pity and sympathy.

Vlad then leaned closer to whisper into Dracula's ear, "I think I'm starting to see why you switched to a blood substitute a few years ago."

Dracula just rolled his eyes at his father.

"That might explain why everyone thought humans would give them hives," Murray chuckled, "Get it? Hives? HIV? Heh, heh."

But he just got glares from everyone, no one finding it funny and the mummy seemed to sink into himself.

"And now you think we're going to judge you," said Mavis, and understanding dawned on her, "Push you away because you've been alienated by your own family. Elona, it's okay, and it won't matter because monsters are immune to most human diseases, I mean Vampires like me and my dad and Grandpa Vlad can heal really easily."

"I know," she said low, "But I still feel like a freak, even here."

Eunice came closer and put a hand on her arm and gave a small smile as she said, "Well, darling, you've come to the right place, because we're all freaks here."

Everyone gave a laugh at Eunice's joke, and then Wanda said with reassurance, "We understand why you're scared, but I just want you to know you don't have to be scared anymore and if you need help you can come talk to me or any of the girls, our husbands, or anybody and not just Drac if you need to."

"Thanks, Wanda," Elona said low, "But I guess it isn't just I've been so used to running and being judged, I admit I've always had this stubbornness about handling my problems on my own, being a middle child and all. But then it almost always took my big sister or one of my friends to bail me out at the last minute."

"Well, stop it, Honey," Eunice said as she held a clawed finger to Elona's face, "Because if you suddenly have a problem you can't handle, come see one of us, no matter how busy we are."

Elona was quiet for moment, then finally gave a small smile and said, "Thanks, Eunice, I'll try."

"I know what it's like to try and handle a big problem by myself," Dracula said, "Even keeping it secret with the best of intentions has made them worse if I wasn't honest with my friends about it, just ask Johnny and Mavis."

Everyone gave small laughs and some small agreements as they all remembered what Dracula was talking about, though behind his smile he mentally kicked himself for feeling a bit hypocritical.

Elona then looked at Johnny and asked low, "And what about you, Johnny?"

Johnny gave a small smile and held out a hand to her, which Elona was at first hesitant to take but did and Johnny gently held it for a new friend, making everyone smile.

"I had a friend in school with a dad who got AIDS, and he lived a normal life for a long time, even if my friend's dad was made fun of by the other kids because of it, that doesn't mean he deserved it," Johnny said.

Elona gave a small smile as she said, "Thank you, Johnny. Hearing that from the only other human here, that means more to me than I can describe right now."

"I think I know," Johnny said, "And I understand about the handling your own problem thing, too, being the youngest of a few brothers and a sister myself. So it's cool if you ever want to talk about it."

They smiled again, Elona started to feel better about herself than she has in a seemingly long time. But then she remembered something, why she came here in the first place.

"But I still want to know how all those rumors got spread," Elona said with lingering bitterness, "I told it to Drac in private, in confidence, but somehow it still got out."

"Maybe it was that mean Quasimodo," Dennis spoke up, "Mommy, Daddy, and Papa Drac always said he was bad and tried to turn Daddy into shish kabobs."

Dracula gave a look of suspicion, but Johnny just said, "As much as I think you might be right, little dude, we need proof before accusing the guy of anything, though somehow I wouldn't put it past him."

Dennis got an idea.

Elona looked back at Dracula and said, "I'm sorry I got so mad at you, and doubted you. Hearing those rumors, I just thought my trust was broken and you just let it slip, which is why I came to see you. It's not always easy to control my temper, but I've always tried to get the facts before jumping to conclusions."

"I understand," he said with a smile, and she returned it.

Dracula then said, "Elona and I need to talk in private, so we'll get back to this later. Elona, do you want to take another walk with me?"

They soon left arm in arm again from the ballroom, everyone else watching with smiles, even Vlad, while Dennis said he was going to play with Winnie again as he turned into a little bat and flew off.

Dracula and Elona had made their way to another different part of the castle, a courtyard near the pool area that acted as a kind of flower garden, and it was quite romantic even at night.

Meanwhile, Dennis had found Winnie with one of her older brothers again asking her about Bela again, and Dennis told her he needed her help with something, and so she scampered off with him to hear his idea.

He told her what he suspected and what Johnny told him about proof, so the youngest Vampire made his daddy's smart phone appear and he said to Winnie with a sneaky smile, "If Daddy says we need proof mean Quasimodo is making trouble, we'll get it."

"Oh, yeah," Winnie said with a big wolf smile, "This'll be fun."

The two friends then went in search of the scheming hunchback, Dennis turning into a bat again and using his Far Sight powers to find where Quasimodo was headed as he gently carried Winnie in his little bat feet.

Back in the garden area near the pool, Elona and Dracula sat near a flower bed full of night time blooming flowers and roses in quiet companionship, neither knowing what to say to each other.

Finally Elona said, "For once, I'm at peace, I don't feel a need to run. I thought even here I'd be seen as a freak, but after that, it's comforting knowing I'm not going to be turned away because of my condition."

Dracula gave her a comforting look with a small smile as he said, "You've been living in fear for so long, I know what that's like. But while I isolated myself and Mavis here at the hotel, you wandered from place to place seeking something and not knowing where to belong, and I see how lonely that can be. I was so afraid of my family moving away, I couldn't stand the thought of being all alone."

At the words 'being all alone', he moaned them out sadly as he turned into a black bat with red eyes by Elona's side, and gave her a low moan as he gave a pouting lip as he eyes went wide and sad.

Elona tried to hold back a laugh as she said, "Are-are you pouting? As a bat? Are you giving me some kind of… 'poutybat face'?"

In a puff of indigo mist he changed back to himself and smiled as Elona started laughing.

She looked at him for a moment and said low, "It's strange, we seem connected somehow and you can relate to me in some ways, but I realize I know very little about you as a person."

"What would you like to know?" he asked with a smile.

"Well, I know you're the real Count Dracula, but you're nothing like your pop culture counterpart in books and movies, you're a lot nicer. Charming, sarcastic, but still funny, and caring if a little over bearing sometimes; but that prank you pulled on your friends the other day definitely says you're still immature a little, heh, heh-heh."

He gave a bit of a glare.

"But, I don't know what's your favorite color, maybe black as you wear it all the time; or your favorite kind of music, or favorite food. What do you like to do on your time off when not doing hotel business, or what are your hobbies, stuff like that. I've also been wondering why everyone seems to think we should be together, but I know it won't work."

"Why do you say that?"

She gave a sigh as she said, "I think you know why. My ex-boyfriend, he didn't just cheat on me, he even at times verbally abused me, but I didn't want to admit it to myself and I just thought he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in the Marines and he needed a stable rock to lean on. Boy, was I stupid. But I also understand you're still in love with Martha, I can see it in your eyes, and everyone has mentioned her fondly. I know I can never replace her, and I don't want to try, I know we can just be friends. Besides, I've accepted I don't need a man in my life to validate my very existence, to make me feel needed and special."

Dracula was silent for some moments in deep thought, feeling a little more sorry, but still understanding of her hurt bitterness at the world. He also found she didn't just look a lot like Martha, but in some small ways was like his late wife, too, kind and compassionate when she wasn't all temperamental and angry, and he admired her intellect as well.

"Fushcia," he finally said.

"What?"

"My favorite color is fushcia," he said, "I know it's not the manliest color, but I've always liked it. I like Blood Beaters blood substitute, sometimes wormcakes and roasted piranha, and I've always enjoyed party planning. I always loved music by Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach, they've played for some of my parties before," Elona raised a surprised eyebrow at this, "But since Johnny first came to the hotel, I've steadily taken a liking to some forms of techno dance music as I like to bust a move, although I sometimes wonder how humans can call something 'music' when it sounds like soul stealing noise in my ears." He rubbed at one of his ears as he remembered Johnny first putting earplugs into them and he heard 'I'm Sexy and I Know It' by LMFAO, "Anyway, I also like Hawaiian music just because I can play the ukulele, and I've played it to sing lullabies to Mavey."

Elona's eyes slowly widen as he opened up to her about his likes and interests, never thinking Dracula would be into such things.

"You play the ukulele? And sing?" he breathed out, and he nodded with a smile, "I used to sing in my school choirs growing up, and I had friends I went to karaoke nights with sometimes just for fun. But I don't know if I still have the voice for it anymore."

"Maybe we can find out together sometime," he offered, "There's a karaoke night once a week in the hotel lounge."

She smiled, but it faded quickly, "That would be nice, but just as friends, okay?"

"Sure," he said with a bit of uncertainty as he slowly leaned towards her.

"I mean, I haven't had any real friends since I left Chicago, and I'll never find another guy like Jason, it's for the best."

She looked at him and was once again hypnotized by his deep icy sapphire gaze, and a chill went down her spin as she couldn't, and didn't want to look away.

He said gently and soothingly to her, "I too always thought I'd never be with another, I had to accept I would never find another as Martha was my one and only Zing. But I always knew she was here."

He patted a fist to his heart as he came a little closer to Elona, and she said with growing apprehension and strange need, "Then it's agreed. We should just be friends."

But her surging and swirling emotions inside her said otherwise as both their eyes slowly went half closed and she tried to say through confusing and fleeting thoughts, "Everyone should understand it isn't…possible…logical for us…to be…"

But she closed her eyes as their faces were mere millimeters from each other again, once more they both felt like they were floating on air and had swarms of butterflies or bats in their stomachs, their hands entwined, as both were caught in only this moment and the world was but a distance memory.

"Sir, there you are!" A suit of armor announced with an at-attention stance and salute.

"Ugggh!" Dracula groaned loudly, once more a wonderful moment ruined, "What is it this time?!"

"There's an emergency in the gift shop that requires your immediate attention, sir," the armor guard reported.

"I'll be right there," he groaned with annoyance, and turned to Elona and tried to say reassuringly, "I'll be back."

"It's okay, I'll see you around," she said with disappointment and watched him go as she stood and turned to walk away.

She took a few short steps in the opposite direction, quietly and contemplatively looking at all the beautiful flowers in this recreational garden. Then there was a light tap on her right shoulder and she turned back to see Dracula quietly floating to her and smiling, and quietly landed in front of her as she gave a bit of a confused look, though she smiled and was thrilled he came back.

"But, I thought…" she began, but he gently placed a long finger on her warm lips.

"Shh, it's nothing that can't wait a few more minutes," he said tenderly and began to gently stroke his long fingers through her lush brown hair as he stared into her azure sky blue eyes, and the caress went down her cheek.

Their eyes locked again, both glowing in the glimmering starlight of the night sky, and he leaned down slowly as his hand went to her delicate but strong chin, and they closed their eyes and at last shared a warm kiss.

The moment their lips locked a golden burst of a firework exploded in the sky to encircle them in warming light, and was followed by more vibrant fireworks as they lit up the sky the couple slowly embraced, Elona's arms went around Dracula's long neck and his arms went to around her back and to her shoulder and lower back. For Elona, she tasted smooth but cool strong lips, and he made her heart pound harder in her chest as though she sensed something dark, forbidden, and wild but wonderful from him; and for Dracula he tasted a warm fire, and something more that warmed his soul and ignited long dormant desires, as well a pain he sensed from her he wanted to help heal.

They soon separated from their kiss, and Dracula gently touched her chin and smiled as she stood frozen in place and slowly opened her eyes with an aura of happiness she hadn't felt in a long time, or perhaps ever in her entire life as a warmth grew and flowed through her body and she smiled at him.

He gave her a smile and his eyes told her he will return soon as he gracefully turned and flew quietly like a dark silken wind. She gave a smile as her fingers touched at her lips with a feather light touch, and she giggle low like a little girl.

Meanwhile, what neither of them had noticed, one of the firework rockets had carried with it a surprised and reluctant passenger.

They never heard a screaming Quasimodo as a got caught on the head of a firework rocket as it flew through the air at a rapid speed and exploded at the side of the hotel and left a big explosion burn on the thick stone wall. Two beady eyes opened and were the brightest points in the center of the giant burn as Quasimodo then slid down the wall groaning loudly from pain, and maybe humiliation, and made a long black trail of soot as he left behind a Quasimodo shaped clean spot in the center.


	13. 13 Soul Baring Redux

Soul Baring Redux

He had her in his power, there was no escape, and resistance was utterly futile.

And maybe the most frightening part was she didn't want to, but a small and insignificant part of her shouted at her conscience she should. But that tiny voice was pushed aside as she gave into his allure, the very forbidden temptation he was.

A warm tropical breeze blew through the room and gently fluttered the light linen curtains of the four poster bed, the soft white sheets the only covering upon them as their bodies entwined.

She gave an aching groan as she felt his gracefully slender, yet strong body upon her, his skin soft and smooth with the cool touch of an Autumn breeze, his cool and smooth mouth tasted her warmer lips, she tasted his surprisingly warm sweet breath, and the wild darkness she couldn't describe with words alone as his long arms embraced her close with such gentleness, yet she felt a strength like a boa constrictor.

He kissed her deep as his long tongue penetrated her mouth and tasted the inside cavern, while she explored his wildness with her warmer tongue, its delicate flesh touched at the deadly tip of a fang. This enticed him even more as she felt gentle but powerful thrusts into her with such strength, making her arch her back and match his rhythm as she gave another tormented groan of erotic need, her fingers combed through night black hair as her other hand gripped at his muscular back.

He then momentarily broke the kiss to give her a look filled such deep love and gentleness, it took her breath away as she smiled at him, and it was returned as his icy blue eyes gleamed and sparkled.

But the moment of happiness was lost as she saw his eyes becoming nothing but pitch black voids as he hissed like a viper and his fangs grew. She could only watch his change with growing fear as she suddenly felt two sharp fangs sink deep into her neck, and he was too strong to struggle against, as all she could do was give a fearful cry,

"No! No, please!"

He withdrew his fangs and arched up as he gave a deep breath as though savoring her blood's exquisite taste, small red trails drooled from the ends of his mouth.

He leaned down again and his fangs sank into her neck again, and she began to feel weak as she begged,

"No, don't please! I'm poison!"

He stopped feeding to look at her with those soulless black eyes, again he gave a faint hiss.

She quietly began to cry, knowing her own eyes had become the same soulless black voids and her tongue felt sharp fangs growing.

"Kill me," she quietly begged as she wept.

But he just gently, if strongly thrusted into her again, several more times as though to show something, as though to lovingly massage her body from within and heal her soul.

"KILL ME!" she nearly screamed from her emotional turmoil.

"I'm not through with you," he told her, "I can help you, I can heal you."

Somehow, the pitch black eyes radiated a look of sympathy and pity as he came down and kissed her again with such warmth and passion with his smooth cool lips, and she closed her eyes.

Again she tasted something wild and wonderful from him, and she didn't want to let go. She opened her eyes again thinking she would look into those wonderful blue eyes once more, but they were still black soulless voids. But worse, it wasn't who she expected to see. Her lover was now a handsome and well built muscular man with auburn hair in a military buzz cut, but his eyes were soulless black voids with a look of evil to them, and he snarled at her with long fangs.

"Jason," she gasped with fear as he suddenly bit into her neck savagely, making her scream with fear and pain.

"NO!" Elona cried loudly as she suddenly awoke in her hotel room sitting up from a cold sweat as she breathed heavily.

It took her mind some moments before to realize it was just a strange and frightful dream, and she didn't know what to think, other than it was confusing.

Suddenly feeling very alone, she tightly grasped the bed covering to herself as she tried to go back to sleep as quiet tears flowed from her eyes.

In a dark and nearly empty chamber, another figure stirred from his own sleep in a dark confining space.

With a start, Dracula awoke from a restless nap from a strange dream about Elona. He had hoped some rest would help refresh him after so much stress of the past few weeks, but it had barely helped.

He could still feel it stirring, wanting to come out and feed, devour everything.

But that was the last thing on his mind at the moment as he became concerned for Elona.

He sat up too quickly, he forgot his coffin was shut tight and his head hit the top.

"Ow!" he cried, and laid there for some moments as he rubbed his head in annoyance to himself.

"Martha," he whispered low.

He finally pushed the top open, and redressed in a puff of indigo from his bright pink pajamas to his gentleman's tux and cape, and decided to check on Elona.

He soon found her hotel room, and stood in front of the door, hesitating for only a long second or two, then wracked gently a few times and a dozing Elona awoke with a start.

She got out of bed and put on a robe, and opened the door, giving a soft gasp as she saw it was Dracula.

"Hi," he said with a small smile.

"Uh, hi," she said awkwardly, "What're you doing here?"

He hesitated for a moment as he blushed a bit and finally just said, "I, I uh…just wanted to be sure you were okay, and if you needed anything."

"I'm fine, I was just trying to sleep," she said a bit groggily and shyly.

"Sure," he said low.

"Listen," she began low with uncertainty, "About the kiss…"

"No, no, no," he said as he shook a finger in the air, "No backsies, it happened, alright? Forget what everybody else says, we know how we feel."

He gently put a hand on her warm cheek, and she gave a small smile, but it faded as she said low, "That's what scares me."

Dracula just smiled, hoping to reassure her as he said tenderly, "Then we'll take it slow."

Elona came out a bit from her room at his reassurance and smiled as the door opened a bit more to reveal more of the guestroom.

Dracula peaked inside at the common mundane room and said with disapproval, "Oh, no, no, no, this won't do at all."

"What?" Elona asked confused, "My room? It's been okay for me for the last few weeks. What's wrong with it?"

"C'mon, I have something better for you," he said with a smile.

Confused if flattered, Elona quickly gathered up her bags, and walked with Dracula to a new room, the Shrunken Heads saying 'Do Not Disturb' a bit loudly as they were passed by.

"You know, I don't mean to sound rude about your employees," Elona said, "But they get annoying after the first dozen times or so."

"You learn to ignore them," he said.

They then took an old elevator to a higher floor, faint elevator music played but it was faint background noise to them, yet it may also have been deafening with the tense silence between them.

"Can I tell you something?" she asked with hesitation, "About a dream I had?"

"Sure, you can tell me anything," he said with another smile.

Elona hesitated again, unsure if she should even tell him about the intimate and erotic, yet frightening dream she had about him. She then quickly shifted gears and said,

"Well, uh, it's a dream I had since I was a little girl, and I don't know why I still have it."

He looked at her to show he was listening.

"Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamt I was trapped in a burning building, and it always felt so real, like a memory instead of just a dream. I hear a baby crying, and I don't know if I'm the baby or the mother trying to save the baby. Then there's a man in the shadows, in the smoke of the fire trying to get to me calling my name, I think, but I can't hear him. I then suddenly feel a stabbing pain in my chest, literally like a stab as though a knife was plunged into my heart. I cry out and that's always when I wake up. The first time I told my mom about the dream, she just told me not to worry about it because it's just a bad dream and bad dreams can't hurt you. But I often wondered as I got older if it really is a dream, or some strange traumatic memory I suppressed, because it feels more like a memory at times."

Dracula gave her a look of shock, as though she was talking about something he knew and it surprised him she even knew about it, and it disturbed him not knowing whether he should be worried or intrigued.

"What's wrong?" she asked, "I know it all sounds crazy, but it's true."

Dracula shook himself out of his shocked stupor as he stammered out, "Uh, no, no, it just sounds pretty intense, is all."

Elona could only give a confused look.

They finally made it to a higher floor where the more lavish and expensive rooms were, and he took her to a vacant one as they were greeted by another of his Shrunken Head employees, this one a little more respectful of the Count that most others.

"Good to see you, Boss," it said politely with a British accent as he gave a low laugh, "So to speak. You rarely come this way."

"Yes, yes," he said dismissively as he opened the door for Elona, "Your new room, M'lady."

Elona went wide eyed at her new room, a high class suite in fact, big enough to room a family of six.

"Drac," she breathed out, "I really appreciate this, but I can't afford a room like this."

"Don't worry about it," he waved away with a smile, "It's yours."

She couldn't help but begin to smile again as he continued to say, "What matters is that you're happy, and it will make me really happy knowing you're staying here."

Elona suddenly found herself hugging him and quietly thanking him, surprising him at first, but Dracula then returned the hug as he gingerly rested a sharp cheek on her head and smiled. He then gently clasped her soft hands in his and learned down a bit nervously and kissed her cheek as he said,

"I hope I can see you later but I know you need to sleep, so, uh, good night, Elona."

"Good night, Drac," she said with a dreamy smile as she lightly touched her cheek and watched him slowly walk away smiling at her until she closed her door.

Elona would have taken some time to explore her new suite, which had to be bigger than the old apartment she shared with Jason, but she headed straight for a bedroom and fell back asleep as wonderful, if confusing and blissful thoughts swirled in her head.

She slept in late the next day, but later awoke surprisingly refreshed, and decided to spend the day getting settled into her new private room. Although it still had all the monstrous themed Gothic and Medieval styled furniture now mixed with modern amenities and appliances, Elona felt a little overwhelmed with how big it was and how it was a gift from Dracula.

The front door lead to an open living space with couches, chairs, and a new giant flat screen TV and entertainment system, which made it look like a private movie theatre, while next to it may have been a kitchen with a tall fridge and freezer combo, oven and stove, microwave, dishwasher, and a next to that a wet bar with stools, while the next room was a dining room big enough for maybe ten people. What Elona loved most about her new suite was the master bed room, which had a big comfy bed for two across from a big and ornately carved fire place, a vanity table, a love seat, and a smaller entertainment system in front of the bed, but also a desk as an office area with internet connection, and a master bathroom with a luxurious Jacuzzi bath and separate large two person shower, and the bathroom could have also acted as a private mini spa. But Elona's favorite part of the master bedroom had to be the balcony, with its breathtaking view of the mountainous horizon and lake, and somehow it was still private with no one else looking up or into her room.

She wasn't really sure what she was going to do with all of the extra space and other extra stuff, as she always had simple tastes and had been happy with her old hotel room. But Dracula had gone all out for her and wanted her to stay in this suite instead.

She stayed in and explored the room all day, but then decided to go to the lounge for a nice dinner, and to her surprise found it was the lounge's weekly 'Karaoke Night,' a skeleton had just finished singing 'Bad to the Bone,' and the mixed audience of humans and monsters clapped, as did Elona as she gave a small laugh at the too obvious pun.

"Hello, Elona," said a familiar voice as she turned around to see Wanda, Eunice, Nefi, and Carrol, wearing a pink sleeveless dress and high heels, and pearl bracelets with her pearl necklace, walking up to the human woman and smiling at her.

"Hi, everyone," she said a bit nervously if happily.

"It's good to see you're still staying at the hotel," Wanda said as she lovingly stroked her large tummy, "I know it wasn't easy telling everyone about your condition, but that shouldn't keep you from having some fun."

"In fact, we were all going to sing a song together, as a girl group, y'know," Eunice said with some eagerness in her voice, "Hey, why don't you join us."

"Uh, I don't know," Elona shrugged, "I used to sing with my friends back in Chicago, but I don't know if I still can any more, as I haven't in months."

"Oh, c'mon, just give it a try," Carrol encouraged.

"Perhaps a bit of singing as you have once done in the past will do you well," said Nefi with her own encouragement.

"You know what," Eunice spoke up, "We'll do our girl group song later, I say Elona sings just to cheer her up right now."

"What?" Elona gasped, "But I…"

"No excuses, Elona," Eunice said as she and the other monster women started pushing her towards the stage as a yeti finished singing his song, not very well though as the audience applauded politely.

"But what should I even sing?" Elona asked unsure.

"Something that shows how you feel," Wanda said with encouragement, "Something that tells everyone you're a strong person, but you haven't given up on love or finding friendship because bad things have happened to you."

Elona gave a thoughtful look and gave a small smile as she said, "Well, I can think of one or two songs like that. But maybe I should rehearse or something first."

"Nonsense, Darling," Eunice said with a wave, "If you know them by heart, I don't see a need to practice."

Elona was still not sure, but after a Gillman blubbered his own song on stage, the women pushed Elona for her to go, but she felt so nervous she asked them, "The song I want to sing might need backup singers, would you all mind being my backup singers?"

"Of course not, we'd love to," Carrol said as he glasses gave a happy expression.

Elona told them what she was going to sing and she brought it up on the screen, and luckily for her the other women knew of it well enough and got into position behind Elona as she spoke a bit nervously into the microphone, which was the very moment Dracula entered the lounge to see how things were doing and he gave a smile at seeing Elona on stage, and hear her say,

"This is a song about giving love a second chance. I've had a rough time these last few months, but I'm grateful to feel so welcomed to this hotel, mostly by someone quite special. This is 'I Won't Say It' from Disney's Hercules."

The song began, and Elona drew deep inside herself and just let the music come to her.

Elona:

 _If there's a prize for rotten judgment_

 _I guess I've already won that_

 _No man is worth the aggravation_

 _That's ancient history_

 _Been there, done that_

The girls:

 _Who'd ya think you're kiddin'?_

 _He's the Earth and heaven to you_

 _Try to keep it hidden_

 _Honey, we can see right through you_

 _Girl, you can't conceal it_

 _We know how ya feelin' ,_

 _Who you're thinkin' of._

Elona:

 _No chance, no way_

 _I won't it, no, no,_

Girls:

 _You swoon, you sigh_

 _Why deny it, uh-oh_

Elona:

 _It's too cliché,_

 _I won't say I'm in love._

Girls:

 _Shoo-doo, shoo-doo,_

 _Ooh-ooh-ooh._

Elona:

 _I thought my heart had learned it's lesson,_

 _It's feels so good when you start out._

 _My head is screaming 'Get a grip, Girl._

 _Unless you're dying to crying you heart out!'_

Girls:

 _You keep on denyin',_

 _Who ya are, and how you're feelin'_

 _Baby, we're not buyin',_

 _Hon, we saw ya hit the ceilin'_

 _Face it like a grown up,_

 _When ya gonna own up_

 _That ya got, got, got it bad_

Elona:

 _No chance, no way_

 _I won't say it, no, no_

Girls:

 _Give up, give in_

 _Check the grin, you're in love_

Elona:

 _This scene won't play,_

 _I won't say I'm in love_

Girls:

 _You're doin' flips,_

 _Read our lips,_

 _You're in love_

 _Shoo-doo, shoo-doo_

Elona:

 _You're way off base_

 _I won't say it_

 _Get off my case,_

 _I won't say it_

Girls:

 _Girl, don't be proud_

 _It's okay, you're in love_

Elona:

 _Oh, at least out loud_

 _I won't say I'm in love._

Girls:

 _Ooh, sha-lah, lah, lah. Aahh._

A loud round of applause burst through the lounge from both monsters and what few humans were yet left at the hotel, and even Dracula applauded for Elona's singing, perhaps the loudest and hardest of all, having been entranced by her beautiful voice which out did the call of a siren, and was as beautiful as a nightingale.

He slowly walked up to the stage as Elona and the girls gave bows to the audience, and that was when she noticed him, smiling at her. For some long moments she was frozen in apprehension, not knowing what to say or do, then she too gave a smile as she asked low,

"What did you think?"

"Wonderful," he breathed, "You have such a beautiful voice. I hope you will sing another."

Elona blushed as she gave another smile and said a bit nervously, "Maybe later, I don't want to hog the stage all night, and this is my first time singing on stage in a while. I was so nervous."

"I believe you did wonderfully," Dracula said with true sincerity.

There were some whistles and cat calls as Dracula took her hand like a gentleman and helped her off of the stage, even some calls to do another song, but it was Frank's turn as he took to the stage and sang a song called 'Stitches' by Shawn Mendes as Dracula and Elona took a seat at a booth, the girls smiled and said they could chat with Elona more later.

Again the lounge applauded, Dracula and Elona included, for the gentle giant as he gave a bow when he finished singing his song, Eunice went up on stage and gave her husband a long loving kiss for the song.

Dracula gave a big smile of pride as he saw Mavis was next on stage, and she started to sing a song called Love Will Remember, and his heart just melted at the touching lyrics and his own daughter's wonderful singing, knowing she got it from his side of the family.

As the song gradually came to an end, there then came a slurred male voice yell, "Whooo! Take it off, Baby! C'mon, show us some skin!"

This made Mavis freeze in embarrassment on stage as she and the rest of the audience looked around for the heckler, Dracula became annoyed and angered at whoever dared to demand his daughter strip her clothes off for their amusement.

"C'mon, sweetheart, I got a 20 for ya!" the same heckler, a bloodshot eyed human man with a bit of a beer gut, yelled in a now obvious drunken stupor as he waved a 20 Euro in the air at Mavis.

"Sir," the gargoyle bartender tried to reason with him, "This is karaoke, not a strip club, the hotel doesn't have a strip club. And if you don't stop shouting at the Count's daughter or you try to make trouble, I'm going to ask you to leave."

But the drunk human wasn't listening as he waved the bartender away as he slurred out, "Ah, lighten up, stone face, I'm just havin' some fun. C'mon, Babe! Show some sexy vampire skin! Whooo!"

The rest of the lounge guests, including a now scowling Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis, who came for Karaoke Night as well, and especially a growing angered Dracula all gave the inebriated man looks of distaste and disapproval at his rude remarks.

"Security!" Mavis yelled as her father got up from his booth with Elona and made his way to the human who dared humiliate his only daughter.

Elona had a growing uncomfortable feeling of what Dracula might do to the heckler as she got up to try and help and cool the situation before the over protective Vampire father really lost his temper.

Dracula was practically in the man's face with a dark scowl as he hissed at the drunkard, "Leave now, or I will drag you out of my lounge by your neck myself. No one, I mean _no one_ , human or monster, insults my daughter!"

But the man didn't listen as he wacked at Dracula's chest backhanded and just slurred some more, "Ah, back off, Stretch, learn to loosen up and have a good time, there's a hot chick on stage and she's puttin' on a show."

Dracula grabbed the man by his shirt collar and brought him close to his own long face, smelling the clear and obvious stench of alcohol on the man's breath, even without his own Vampire sense of smell, and his eyes began to glow a dangerous red as he heatedly warned the man,

"That 'hot chick' is _my daughter_ , and you will apologize for insulting her, or leave now."

The man then forced Dracula grip from his shirt collar and just said in a drunken challenge, "Get your mitts off me, ya freak! Ya wanna fight, c'mon, put 'em up!"

"Drac, don't," Elona tried to calm him.

"Dad, he's not worth it," Mavis said as he got off the stage, and the entire lounge went quiet to watch what was happening.

Dracula backed off a little, knowing Mavis and Elona were right, but he eyes didn't stop glowing red at the man, who then mocked at him,

"Whatsa matter? Ya chicken? C'mon, ya wanna beat down? Put 'em up, Stretch!"

And the moment the Armor Guards arrived in the lounge, the man recklessly threw a hard punch at Dracula's face, which was like punching granite for him, and Dracula's face got knocked to the side for a long brief moment as the man shook his now cracked knuckles in pain. His eyes were squeezed shut from the unexpected punch, but then they snapped open and now glowed an all consuming crimson as he looked back at the drunk man, who now had a look of fear on his face, realizing too late what he had done and who he just punched.

Dracula grabbed the man by his shirt collar again, his nails growing to sharp talons as he snarled and again brought the man nose to nose in his face. A burning all consuming rage was growing within him, like a building pressure of a dormant volcano with centuries of build up and now readied forth to unleash the fire. It heated his blood, and burned at his chest, until finally he roared right into the man's face, make him squeeze his own eyes closed tightly and blew his receding hair back in the air current.

The next thing anybody knew, Dracula threw the man hard across the lounge and he hit a far wall, and fell unconscious from the impact.

Dracula gave another frightful roar that echoed throughout the room, making its dozens of occupants back away from him, even his own worried family as he then seemed to change before their eyes; dark violet and indigo mist enveloped his very countenance, and his fangs got long and deadlier as his face became more ghostly white and sunken in and more skeletal.

He became positively feral as he looked around the lounge, his eyes still glowed the deepest crimson anyone had ever seen, as he snarled, daring anyone to challenge him again as he bared his fangs and curled his razor sharp claws.

For him, he didn't see his family or frightened hotel guests, but prey, nothing but food; all of them. Every last living being to him was now a walking meal as he saw nothing but body heat, red silhouettes with loud pumping hearts that boomed in his ears, while others, like Gillmen, the Steins, and Murray looked like cold nearly unseen blue shadows, but he knew they were there. The brightest red silhouettes of all were humans, and he began to feel a craving he hadn't felt in a long time.

He snarled again, causing everyone to back away again as he looked ready to jump and devour them, and when his crimson gaze fell on some familiar people, somehow a more reasoning part of his mind broke through and took control again.

He gave a struggling groan as he grabbed at his head and squeezed his eyes shut. He slowly opened them again and returned to their normal beautiful icy blue, and his vision cleared to return to a more normal sense as he looked around at all the frightened people before him, including his friends, family, and worst of all Elona.

Dracula began to breathe heavily as he grasped at his chest, as though from a growing pain inside, and looked around at everyone in growing fear and humiliation as they all just stared back at him scared and confused, wondering what had just happened and what he was going to do next. The worst expressions of all were on the faces of Johnny, and now Elona.

The next thing anybody knew, he flew away like a mini comet with a trail of indigo and purple mist and he was gone.

"Dad, wait!" Mavis called after him as she flew in her own trail of blue mist, and was followed by Johnny and Dennis in a trail of emerald green mist as he called,

"Papa, where're going?"

The rest of the Drac Pack soon followed, and Elona at first was conflicted of what to do at first, but then followed everyone else out of the lounge in concern for Dracula.

The lounge guests were in silent shock for a few long moments more before low whispers began to reverberate and spread about what happened, while the Armor security guards picked up the unconscious drunken heckler and took him back to his hotel room to sleep off his lingering stupor.

Everyone followed Mavis to her father's private chambers, and she arrived in time to see him slam the door hard and lock it tightly.

She gave a low knock as everyone else arrived and called, "Dad, are you okay?"

He didn't answer.

Wayne came to the door and knocked as he asked, "Drac, it's Wayne, what's wrong, Bud?"

"Go away!" Dracula yelled from inside his chambers.

"C'mon, Drac," Frank called, "Whatever's going on with you, we just want to help you."

"Yeah, please, Dad," Mavis pleaded to her father, "You're scaring us, you're scaring _me_."

"I said _Go Away_!" he yelled louder, "I don't want you to see me like this!"

Mavis became more worried for Dracula as she pleaded more to him, "See you how, Dad? What's happening to you? Whatever's happening, we want to help you."

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" he shouted with a strange otherworldly boom in his voice, then there came a feral Vampire roar that made the sturdy wooden door rattle, and everyone backed up in fright of the thunderous roar.

A long silence followed, and Elona finally said with some calmness, "Maybe everyone should leave. Whatever's happening to him, he doesn't want to talk about it right now, and we should respect that. He needs time to calm down, and he'll tell us when he ready."

Mavis gave a look of thought and nodded her head, along with a few others. They slowly began to walk away down the halls, and Mavis took Dennis's hand as he asked, "Is Papa Drac gonna be okay, Mommy?"

"I hope so, Honey, but Elona's right," she tried to reassure him, "He needs to be alone for a little while to calm down, and he'll talk to us when he's ready."

Dennis looked back at Elona as everyone left, and she could only give him a sad look of sympathy and yet some hope.

Soon everyone was gone, but Elona remained outside of Dracula's door.

Inside his chambers, Dracula struggled with himself to bring his growing thirst and rage under control as he found his hidden private stash of blood substitute. He struggled to get the first bottle open when there was a knock at his door and he heard his daughter and the others just on the other of side of his door, their presence making it harder for him to regain control. He didn't mean to scare his daughter, or anyone for that matter. He doesn't even yet know why he just lost it back there in the lounge, but he was beyond ashamed of it.

He finally got the first bottle open and swigged it down in just a few gulps, but it wasn't enough and he had to drink more before he finally began to feel like himself again.

He then heard another quieter knock at his door, and he sneered at it as he then heard Elona's voice gently say, "Drac, it's me, Elona. I know you want to be alone right now, but I just wanted you to know I'm here, if it's any consolation. You don't have to talk to me, you don't need to tell me anything, but I'm here if you do, and when you're ready."

He remained silent at this, not knowing what to think or if to say anything, and yet it was still somehow comforting.

Finally, he felt calm and more himself again after consuming at least six more bottles of his blood substitute, and just sat in silence beside his hidden stash with his back again the wall. Thoughts flowed through his mind about what he almost allowed to be revealed back in the lounge, and it made him shiver.

For a time he stared off into nothing in his dark chambers, his eyes every now and then going to the half covered portrait of him and Martha, whose image was again the only part to be seen. He sometimes even glimpsed to the opaque reflective glass surface of his blood substitute bottle, now one of the rare times he was glad he didn't have a solid reflection, because he couldn't even look at himself right now, even though he knew he now could with his new digital cell phone if he even wanted to do a 'selfie.' He felt at his face, and it was whole and smooth again as it should, and even the color had returned to normal in his face, at least what's normal for him as a Vampire.

The rage and thirst had now been replaced by shame and humiliation, where he knew at one time he would have felt powerful and invigorated, even invincible. But that all changed after he met his wonderful Martha, and she helped him see the world in a new light, and even by some incredible miracle forgave him.

He gave one last glimpse to the image of Martha and finally stood up as he made his way to his door, now hearing someone faintly singing or humming to herself. It was Elona.

"Well, I know that I'll get through this/'Cause I know that I am strong," she sang, "Oh, I don't need you anymore/No, I don't need you anymore/Do you believe in life after love?..."

He slowly opened the door to see her sitting to the side against the wall, turning her head at the faint creak of the door.

"Hi," she said low as she stood up.

"Hi," he said in a near whisper, "What were you singing?"

"Believe, a Cher song," she said, "It's old, but it's always been one of my favorites. How are you feeling? Are you going to be okay?"

"I think so."

"You had us worried there."

"I know, I'm sorry."

She gave a small smile in understanding, not needing to say anything.

He then opened his door a little more as he said with a sad tone, "Come inside, there's something I need to tell you, something I have to show you."

Elona gave a bit of a skeptical look as part of her was suspicious of his intentions in inviting her into his room. He saw this and scoffed low, "It's not like that. Please come in, I have to tell someone."

She slowly came in and he closed the door slowly as torches lit up the nearly empty and vast room.

"Okay, what did you want to tell me?" Elona asked.

"You told me your deepest secret, now I should tell you mine," he said with a low, almost bleak tone, making Elona give a confused if sympathetic look.

He gently took her by the hand and brought her to look at the half covered portrait, though she briefly glanced at his coffin with a raised eyebrow. Looking up at the portrait of a dark haired and lovely pale faced woman, Elona gave a low gasp.

"Is that Martha?" she asked, and he gave a small nod, "She's beautiful."

Indeed, Elona marveled at portrait of Martha, her wavy raven black hair and ivory skin with pale rosy cheeks and black lips, a graceful hourglass figure, and a smile that would melt even the most hardened man's heart. Yet she also felt strangely familiar in some way to Elona, and as she stared more and longer at Martha's facial features, the beautiful graceful oval shaped face with high cheekbones and strong delicate chin, the long cute button nose, and almond shape crystalline azure blue eyes, all facial features very similar to Elona's own.

As Elona looked on more and more at the old painting, a strange and rather illogical thought, as well as a growing feeling of familiarity and discomfort came over her.

"Wait," Elona breathed as she looked back at Dracula, who only had a contemplative look on his long pale face, and she continued slow with growing realization, "She looks a little like me, or I look a little like her. How is that possible?"

She looked back at Dracula again and stammered out, "Wait. You don't think…that's not…I'm not…"

"It's possible," Dracula said quietly, "But I don't know, and it's only part of what I have to tell you."

Elona went silent waiting to listen to what he had to say.

"You told me I'm not like how human pop culture says, in books and movies and stuff. Well, it's more or less true. I've read the book by this Bram Stoker, and I found it both amusing and insulting at times, and full of a lot of typical human inaccuracies and misconceptions."

"Okay," Elona said low.

"But one thing bothered me, and it was very close to home, what the book simply called 'the thirst' and how I, or rather the character in the book went crazy at the very sight of human blood. Such a thing is only true for younger Vampires 'cause they don't know any better, and they're so impulsive and undisciplined, y'know. But I'm ashamed to say at one point for me it was true, because though I now find human blood fatty and unhealthy at times, it can be very addictive."

Elona was silent at this, a bit unsure of what to think except to continue to listen.

"I told you there are things in my past I'm not proud of and I haven't always lived in isolation, so I just want you to understand I'm well aware of my true nature. You said you thought Vampires only saw humans a food source, like cattle or sheep or something, and to make a long story short, in a way that was true once, before a good blood substitute was found. But I often still need to feed from living creatures, and I always took Mavy hunting in the forest. Vampires need blood like other living creatures need food to survive, but also because there can be power in blood, especially highly intelligent creatures like humans."

Elona went a bit wide eyed in fear at this, but Dracula tried to reassure her,

"It's alright, you know I don't do that anymore. But it's what I'm afraid will happen if I lose control and it takes over."

"What takes over?" Elona asked with a bit of a shaky voice.

Dracula looked away in hesitation for a long moment then finally said, "What makes me what I am, my ancient bloodlust. It's called the Hunger."

Elona remained silent to listen.

Dracula gave a shaky deep breath as he continued, "It might be a little easier if I showed you what I mean."

Blue mist appeared in his palm, and with a wave of his hand in floated to their line of sight the mist coalesced into a near perfect blue silhouette form of Dracula himself, standing proud and dignified, perhaps even smiling, and Elona watched.

"The Hunger is an inner demon that makes a Vampire crave blood, but it's more like an animal that only knows the instinct to feed, and for those like me, for the Dracula bloodline, it's the most powerful and ancient."

The blue misted mini version of Dracula turned pitch black, two red slit for eyes appeared and it snarled as other misted figures appeared, humans, a yeti, a Gillman, and other warm blooded intelligent monsters, making Elona gasp low as the mini shadow of Dracula attacked them all and seemed to get bigger and stronger as the blue mist victims evaporated into nothingness, and the smaller shadowed Dracula became more vicious as it snarled and roared.

Dracula understood the reaction and gave a stoic brooding look, then continued,

"As you can see, and I'm not proud to admit this, if I give into it completely, I lose myself and only know what the Hunger wants, and it won't just feed on blood, but the very energies and essence of life itself, living souls. The more it craves the stronger it gets, and there's no satisfying it or stopping it."

Elona breathed low as she let this all sink in, realizing there might be some truth to the darker, scarier stories of Dracula, as he waved his hand again and his little shadowed doppelganger disappeared. She then asked low,

"How do you give in to it? How do you lose control?"

Dracula was silent for a long moment or two, and finally he told her low, "Rage, absolute rage and fury. A few times when I was younger, I almost allowed it to completely control me because its power can be very addictive, but I learned discipline and control because I wanted to be better than my Hunger. Then I met Martha and we had Mavis, and it was the happiest time of my long immortal life. But then I came a hair's breadth close, so close, to unleashing it again and allowing it to consume me, and it was when Martha was killed. But I remembered my baby girl, and my vow to be better than my Hunger and never again set monsters back hundreds of years. Things have changed, and I want them to change for the better."

"So," she began slow and quietly, "are you saying that's what happened back there, when you lost it in the lounge? You lost control and it's this Hunger everybody saw?"

"Yes," he nearly whispered.

Long moments passed between them as Elona let everything sink and thought long and hard about what Dracula just told her. Like her, he just told her something deep, profound, and most essential of all pure soul baring, a secret burden which weighed heavily on his shoulders for a long time.

Once again, just like her.

She then said quietly, "And people thought Vampires don't have souls, but you do, like everything else."

He gave a heartfelt smile, which she returned, then asked low, "I'm just confused about what this has to do with me looking like…" She nodded to the large portrait.

"Ever since you arrived at my hotel," he said slowly, "You've reminded me of her, and it's difficult to not believe it's possible, that some part of you might be her."

"Are you saying I'm the reason you went berserk in the lounge earlier?" she asked uncomfortably."

"No, no, no," he tried to reassure her as he took her hand in a gentle hold, "I'm certain it's because of a lot of stress from what's happened the last few weeks, and you coming is just a weird coincidence. I'm just saying you strongly remind me of my beloved Martha, and that reminds me more of what I almost became when she was killed. But never believe any of it is your fault."

He gently touched her chin with a feather light touch as he angled her face to his and looked deeply into her eyes.

She looked up at him, uncertain of what to say, and thinking it meant something else, he released his hold on her and said low, "I understand if you fear, even hate me now. It's one of the few things I understood for humans persecuting monsters."

"I don't," she said reassuringly, as she retook his hand, "It's just a lot to take in. I'm so touched, even honored with how much you trust me with this. But you also have to understand, no matter what or who I may remind you of, I'm _not_ Martha, I'm Elona."

"I know," he said tenderly, as he placed a hand on her warm cheek, "And I do."

They just smiled for some moments, and Elona asked low, "To have such a deep secret, who else knows about it?"

He gave a bit of a shamed frown and said quietly, "Except for my dad, no one."

Elona breathed low as she asked, "But what about your family? Mavis and Dennis, you said it's the most powerful and dangerous with those of the Dracula bloodline."

He just remained silent for a long eternal minute, then finally said, "I taught Mavis how to control her anger and rage instincts at a very young age, and she's only ever tasted animal blood and blood substitutes I fed her. But, Denisovich, I don't know, because he's half human. Of course" He began to smile proudly, "It did take intense righteous rage to finally get his fangs to grow" He then became more stoic again "But I would need to keep an eye out and teach him control, or he could hurt his dad and other humans."

She hugged him close, at first he was unsure of what to do, but gave a content deep sigh as he gratefully returned it. She looked up at him again and said hopefully,

"If you're worried about it happening again, I'll try to help you. I know some calming exercises, and I learned a little about meditation techniques in Yoga."

He gave a raised eyebrow for a moment, but then just said with a brooding and burdened tone, "Right now I'm just beginning to worry about what everybody is going to think now, humans and monsters."

"I suppose there will be a lot of backlash and controversy now," she agreed, "Which is why something has to be done soon to prevent any more hostility."

He smiled a bit, and said out of the blue to her, "Which is why I'm going to plan a Christmas party."

She just went wide eyed at this and a smile grew on her own lovely face as she saw his eyes go big and adorable. The next thing they knew she kissed him, long and passionately, warming his spirit and sparking deep desires he hadn't felt in a long time.

They began to make their way out of his chambers, and when he opened the door they were surprised to see Vlad standing in the hallway with a raised whispy eyebrow, momentarily feeling a tense awkwardness from Elona and Dracula.

"We were just talking," she said defensively, and Vlad gave a small smile and nodded to her.

"It's good to know Drac has someone to talk to again," Vlad said with fatherly warmth.

"Would you like to join us back in the lounge, Dad?" Dracula asked, "It's still Karaoke Night."

"Sure, why not," Vlad said, and they only took a few steps before Vlad took a tight hold of Dracula's shoulders and whispered tensely into his ear, "Remember what I taught you, son. Control."

Dracula was silent, but gave his father a nod of understanding.


	14. 14 Busted

Busted

Dracula's fears were confirmed not long after he and Elona, and now even Vlad returned to the Lounge for more Karaoke Night. Guests talked, whispered, and murmured about what they had seen happen, many worried or wondered if they should worry about Dracula and what he may be capable of.

When the threesome entered the Lounge, it went dead silent as all eyes were on Dracula, as he could only look back with his own awkward silence.

Dracula then found his gracious host mode, and said politely to his apprehensive guests,

"I'm so sorry about what happened earlier, everybody, you know I'm protective of my only daughter and I've been under a lot of stress lately with all of the accidents that happened. You know I have mood swings, but I let that one go too far, and I'm sorry. I promise it won't happen again, and you're perfectly safe with me."

There came a few murmurs from the small crowd of humans and monsters, even some polite applause, and everyone went back to trying to enjoying themselves as a few more monsters and humans did some more karaoke.

Vlad watched a few singers with Elona and Dracula for a while, but they finally convinced even him to get in on some of the fun of Karaoke Night and he sang a song called Twilight Time by the Platters.

Meanwhile, Quasimodo had heard what had happened and smirked maniacally to himself, knowing it was more useful information for him to use to fan the flames of doubt and fear already spreading among humans and monsters. Perhaps the best part of it was these rumors won't need much of his help to get started as talk of Dracula's frightening change had already taken hold and spread. All Quasimodo needed to do was nudge them in the right direction.

However, for Bela it was just another excuse for Quasimodo to delay further his empty promise of restoring the Bat Demon's full size, and he knew his chance may get away. He had to get Vlad to restore his size, as well as his rightful place as leader of his Bat Demon crew, and he needed to do it quickly.

Meanwhile, in their private suit of the hotel, Johnny and his family sat in silence for a time worrying for Dracula.

"Was that what you saw Johnny?" Mavis asked quietly, "What you saw my dad become a few nights ago?"

"I think so," he said low with some hesitation, "But that just happened so fast, and he just snarled or growled at me. But that, what he became in the Lounge, it was like he didn't just become a completely different person, but a…a…"

"A monster?" Mavis finished for him quietly.

Johnny hesitated for a long second, then finally said, "Yeah, and not the really cool kind, but something more dangerous, deadly even. I think I'm starting to understand why humans used to be afraid of Vampires for so long."

Mavis and Dennis gave him sad looks, but Johnny smiled at them in reassurance, then continued, "But never you guys you'll always be the funniest most wonderful Vampire I've ever met, Mavis, and the same for you, Little Dude."

They all smiled at each other in familial love.

Mavis became more somber again as she said quietly, "I just hope it doesn't happen again, and he tells us what's going on with him. You know he can be moody…"

"To put it mildly," Johnny quipped low.

"But that was pretty extreme, even for my dad," Mavis continued, "But then he has been pretty stressed lately, with all the weird accidents, you know. We need to help him, maybe get to the bottom of those accidents."

"Yeah," Johnny said with some growing suspicion, "I don't think they were really accidents, somebody had to be behind them."

It was then Dennis remembered something and asked his daddy for his phone.

Confused and curious to what their son was up to Johnny took out his iphone and let Dennis show him something, a suspicious video recorded from the other night.

In it, Mavis and Johnny saw Quasimodo in a storage room for fireworks and seemed to rearrange the various kinds of fireworks and other festive pyrotechnics really dangerously close and tightly together, even bags and packs of explosive powder. There came some movement from the one holding the phone, obviously Dennis from the height, and Winnie appeared momentarily as she and Dennis followed Quasimodo and saw him smirk maniacally as he rubbed his greasy hands together in anticipation of something as the shrunken Bela then appeared and handed Quasimodo a long wick or string from his feet as he fluttered up the hunchback. Quasimodo and Bela seemed to talk to each other for some moments, but the audio was a bit garbled as their came more movement on the screen as Dennis and Winnie said to other,

"Dump ol' Quasimodo is gonna wreck the fireworks, we gotta stop him."

"I got a better idea," Winnie said, "We'll turn his trick back on him, see how he likes it when it blows up in his face."

"Yeah," Dennis said enthused and sneakily as both kids giggled.

They set to rearranging a lot of fireworks, Dennis very easily with telekinetic powers with emerald green mist, and Winnie pushed some bigger rockets to point at Quasimodo and Bela.

There came some more rapid and random movement on the screen, then the camera was again on Quasimodo, this time a safe distance from in the air as the picture enhanced to show Quasimodo light the long wick. Less than a minute later bright, luminous, and flamboyant colored sparks and explosions sparked forth on the little screen, yet the family was still able to watch a rather big rocket soar through the air with an unintended and reluctant passenger, Quasimodo, to then follow its trajectory and exploded on one side of the grand hotel and leave a giant burn mark, making Johnny and Mavis flinch a bit in sympathy but also couldn't help but smile.

"Well, that explains a few things," Mavis mused.

Winnie's face appeared again and laughed as she said, "Oh man, that was too cool! Did you get it, Dennis, huh?"

"Oh, yeah!" cheered a little black bat with curly red hair.

Johnny stopped the video and looked at his son, Mavis didn't know whether to feel proud, or angry and disappointed, or a combination of all three.

"When did you take this, Dennis?" Johnny asked in a toneless voice.

"Just the other day," he said, suddenly unsure if he was in trouble.

"Well, maybe you should've shown this to us sooner, Sweetie," Mavis told him.

"I'm sorry, Mommy," Dennis said sadly, "I meant to, but I forgot. Winnie and me were having so much fun."

"It's okay, Little Dude," Johnny said reassuringly and easy going, "It doesn't matter now, but it matters that we show this to Drac right away."

"Yeah," Mavis agreed, "If Quasimodo was behind all those accidents, this is the proof we need."

They all soon left to find Dracula, and Mavis found him with her Far Sight powers, a bit surprisingly in the Lounge again about to sing a duet with Elona, a song called All I Ask of You from the classic musical The Phantom of the Opera, but in the version of Josh Groban and Kelly Clarkson:

Dracula:

 _No more talk of Darkness_

 _Forget these wide eyed fears_

 _I'm here, nothing can harm you_

 _My words will warm and calm you_

 _Let me be your freedom_

 _Let daylight dry your tears_

 _I'm here with you, beside you_

 _To guard and to guide you_

Elona:

 _Say you love me_

 _Every waking moment_

 _Turn my head with talk of Summertime_

 _Say you need me with you now and always_

 _Promise me that all you say is true_

 _That's all I ask of you_

Dracula:

 _Let me be your shelter_

 _Let me be you light_

 _You're safe, no one will find you_

 _Your fears are far behind you_

Elona:

 _All I want is freedom_

 _A world with no more night_

 _And you always beside me_

 _To hold me and to hide me_

Dracula:

 _Then say you'll share with me_

 _One love, one lifetime_

 _Let me lead you from your solitude_

 _Say you want me with you here, beside you_

 _Anywhere you go, let me go too_

 _That's all I ask of you_

Elona:

 _Say you'll share with me_

 _One love, one lifetime_

 _Say the word and I will follow you_

Duet of Dracula and Elona together (They slowly put their arms around each other as they continue to sing):

 _Share each day with me_

 _Each night, each morning_

Elona:

 _Say you love me_

Dracula:

 _You know I do_

Duet:

 _Love me_

 _That's all I ask of you_

 _…(Music)_

 _Anywhere you go, let me go too_

 _Love me,_

 _That's all I ask of you_

The song slowly came to a tender and pianissimo end, making the audience applaud and cheer with awed gusto and growing smiles, some Housekeeping witches, even Isadora, took a short break to watch Elona sing with Dracula and they just swooned like love struck fan girls at Dracula's singing, somehow sensing the natural chemistry between them in the way they just harmonized and gazed at each other while singing.

Mavis, Johnny, Dennis, and even Vlad applauded with the Lounge audience for them, the family proud and thrilled for their amazing synchronization, clear with a deep and growing spiritual connection.

From a far inconspicuous corner, the only one to not applaud for them stared on in growing disgust and repulsion as Quasimodo's face twisted to make him seem even more homely, not understanding what his boss saw in that foul, if still attractive in her own way, _creature_ , and it was a sickening scene, Bela shared his sentiment as he too watched on, while in his pants pocket, Esmeralda had mixed feelings about it, agreeing with her friend and master, while also strangely shedding a tear with how beautiful it seemed.

The hunchback then left unnoticed from the Lounge.

As Dracula genteelly helped Elona off of the stage, taking her hand like a gentleman, and looking very happy just to be with each other, Dracula saw his family and came up to them and asked what they thought.

"It was wonderful, Drac," Johnny said as he gave a thumbs up, but then got strangely serious, "But there's something we really need to show you."

At first Dracula gave a raised eyebrow as Johnny took out his iphone, then it showed the video to him and Elona. As they watched, they got more and more wide eyed, and Dracula got a bit madder to the point of his eyes again glowing a laser red, making Elona and his family worry about what he might do at that moment.

"I'll kill him," the Vampire nearly sneered with a hiss, "I'll drain his body of every drop of blood 'til he's nothing but a shriveled up deflated whoopee cushion of a husk."

Elona and his family gave him looks, though Vlad secretly agreed with him, then Elona tried to reason with him, "Drac, calm down, you don't need to get so over dramatic, or gruesome for that matter, I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why that plumber was moving around all those fireworks."

"Yeah, to blow up the hotel," Dennis said, "Just like he must've messed everything else up to make Papa Drac look bad."

Elona then gave Dennis a look as his dad threw in his suspicions as Johnny said, "He might've even somehow been behind the other accidents, like the overflowing with the spa bathrooms, and the beauty equipment, and even the gym's workout equipment."

"Don't forget about the Laundry room and the Tennis Court, Johnny," Dracula said.

"Yeah," Johnny agreed, "And then just the other day a lot of guest rooms had more plumbing problems, like clogged toilets or no working water at all."

"What?" Dracula yelled loudly, making Johnny flinch and raise his hands.

"Easy, Drac, I took care of it," he said timidly, "You've had enough on your plate already, you know, because you've seemed so, well you know, _stressed_ lately."

Everyone looked at Dracula as a tense silence grew between them, Elona gave a look of understanding while his family gave looks of concern, especially Vlad as he said low, "He's right about that, Drac."

"Well," he began as he cleared his throat, "You know I have occasional mood swings, and it takes a lot of hard work to run a hotel, you know. Besides, I've handled problems like this before."

"But not all at once, Dad," Mavis said.

She gave her father an expectant and worried look, but he just remained tensely silent.

After a long minute of silence between everyone, and Elona gave everything some thought, she finally said reasonably, "Well, except for this video, all we have is suspicions, and no real evidence he was behind any of the other accidents."

"But he was, I know it," Dennis insisted.

Elona gave Dennis a patient look as she said, "Maybe, but I think if we just ask him, which I would usually prefer to do, I have a feeling he'll just deny it unless we get him to outright confess. Unless we find solid proof he was behind the other accidents, he's still innocent until proven guilty."

Dracula gave a doubtful glare at Elona's willingness to give the hunchback the benefit of the doubt, then Mavis said in agreement, "Elona might be right, we should take a closer look at how all those accidents were caused, and somehow get him to confess."

"I'll get the others to help because it might take some time, and I'll ask the staff what they might know, and if they saw anything suspicious," Johnny said.

"I'll take down notes of what everyone discovers and learns about," Elona said.

Dracula reviewed the recording again, and gave a scowl as he said, "And I'll confront that hunchback weasel myself, get him to confess and demote him further before I drain him and eat his pet rat."

Everyone gave him wide eyed looks, though Vlad smirked amusedly a bit, as Elona said, "You don't need to be so gory, Drac, trick him somehow instead."

Dracula seemed reluctant to do so, but knew Elona might be right. Then he got a sneaky look on his long, handsome face as she said to Dennis,

"Denisovich, find your werewolf friends, we're going to play a game with Quasimodo. I think I know wheat their little playmate has been up to."

Dennis smiled, liking how sneaky Papa Drac was getting, while Vlad scowled at what he saw his former minion up to sense magically shrinking him. He placed a hand on Dracula's shoulder, and told him he was going to return home and for Dracula and everyone to let him know how everything goes.

Short sweet good-byes were exchanged with Vlad, while none of them noticed they had been overheard by a passing little gray rat, and she just knew her friend's plans and teaming up with that damn Bat Demon would be nothing but trouble, and not all of it his doing.

Esmeralda had to warn Quasimodo.

A short while later, the little gray rat found her friend, unsurprisingly planning his next move against Dracula with that vile usurping Bela. She tried to get his attention and tell Quasimodo Dracula and his family were on to him now and he needed to stop and lay low for a while. But Quasimodo just waved her away in dismissal as she groaned out in annoyance,

"Not now, Esmeralda, Bela and I are busy."

Esmeralda could only continue to squeak her warning, but he still wouldn't listen, leaving her in a state of hurt and bitterness, and all she could do at that moment was skitter quietly away in hurt betrayal, feeling replaced by a pitiful and retched Bat Demon malcontent.

A few short days later, Elona, Dracula, his family and the Drac Pack had all done some thorough investigations of the alleged accidents, with Elona encouraging everybody to think like detectives, like Sherlock Holmes, which confused most of the monsters but Johnny took to it with his ever easy going manner.

In the spa and gym, they discovered the wiring that helped to power the equipment had been crossed and rewired wrong and resulted in power surges and melted circuits before being repaired, while Mr. Ghouligan told of finding pipes heavily clogged and other parts of indoor plumbing completely sealed or cut off.

Also, the electric powered gym equipment also suffered from cross wiring and resulted power surges before being repaired, where Mr. Ghouligan and Clifton also told in zombie groans of their suspicions of sloppy maintenance when someone loosened more wires or damaged electronics, and a few hand tools were left behind.

In the Laundry room, it was told not only had washers and dryers gone through the same kind of electronic and plumbing problems, some had been completely unplugged and didn't get any water flow, or some washers had too much laundry detergent put in and further clogged them up, while several dryers had over heated from too much build up of laundry lint, though the witch maids insisted they cleaned out daily.

Again, some form of plumbing and power maintenance in the alleged accidents were involved.

Questions were then asked about everyone's whereabouts at those times and if they saw anything suspicious, especially if they saw Quasimodo Wilson just before the accidents occurred.

Dracula even questioned the Armor guards about if they saw Quasimodo going places he shouldn't, and one told of seeing him heading to the bowels of the hotel more often than usual where the indoor plumbing and electric generators were, and another told of seeing him head for the fireworks storage room. Then it was told he had been seen going to the hotel's new gift shop at one time as the cash register, credit card machine, ATM or other electronic appliances suffered yet more from odd power surges and malfunctions, while much of the merchandise and furniture had also been badly damaged. Fortunately, Dracula and later Johnny took care of those problems, but it still nearly set the Vampire manager's blood boiling. Finally, it was told by Mr. Hyde while he supervised the reconstruction of the Tennis Court, he saw Quasimodo slacking off and suspiciously talking to himself, which made Dracula raise an eyebrow and give a dark glare as Elona and his family deduced the hunchback must have been talking to Bela about more damage and trouble making.

Johnny then got a thought as he said, "You know, in the last few weeks when all those accidents happened, it's suspicious and somehow not too surprising the kitchen hasn't been touched at all."

"Of course," Dracula nearly yelled out with a sneering smile, which nearly scared Elona, "I should have known, it's the one place that hasn't been messed with, he'd never want to ruin his _precious kitchen_."

At the last two words, Dracula's voice became squeaky and cute as he batted his eyes and held his hands together mock lovingly, actually making Elona laugh.

"Then I say what better place to trap the rat and his rat," Johnny said with a sneaky smile.

"Let's do it, Daddy," Dennis said eagerly, "Me, Winnie, and the pups are ready to do this!"

Dad and son high fived, with Dennis as a little bat, and then he and Winnie set off to bait Quasimodo.

At that moment, the scheming hunchback in question was making his way to another essential part of the hotel after having traded some more unsavory gossip with some monster ladies in the Lounge about Dracula, his frightful outburst, and the human woman, and while the monster ladies found the duet really sweet, they found the change in their Vampire host very disconcerting.

This one detail pleased Quasimodo well as he could use it to his advantage, help spread more rumors and doubt in guests about Dracula's competence in being the hotel manager and farther sow the seeds of fear to grow between humans and monsters. Then after a time, hopefully not too long, he will seize his chance and take over the hotel as it's savior.

But for now that ambition has to wait.

As he made his way to his intended targeted destination, Quasimodo was suddenly ambushed by a ball of flying fur as it snatched a large wrench from his grip. He looked at his empty hand in confusion for a moment, then saw it was one of those wretched nuisance were pups growling playfully with a muzzle full of a wrench like a pup wanting to play fetch.

"Give that back, you little pipsqueak," Quasimodo demanded, but the little pup, Warren, just shook his head like he was saying no and playfully chewing on the wrench at the same time, and the next instant he scampered off in a seemingly random direction, and Quasimodo ran after him in pursuit and proved he was still as quick and nimble as ever, never noticing he was also being followed by a certain brunet human woman recording what was happening with her own iphone.

It was only less than a minute later when Quasimodo realized he was heading in a familiar direction, like the little hairy runt was leading him on an intended chase, but for now it was the last thing on his mind.

Warren finally ran through a door held open for him by one of his brothers and scampered into the now remodeled hotel kitchen, and Quasimodo followed half a second later as he nearly burst through the wooden doors. He eyed Warren as the little pup continued to growl playfully with a mouthful of wrench and he backed up deeper into the kitchen.

"C'mere, little fella," Quasimodo tried to say with pseudo friendliness as he beckoned with a long greasy finger, "C'mere, I won't hurt you, just give the nice wrench back to Uncle Quasi."

But Warren wasn't buying it as he just narrowed his light blue eyes and growled in a more hostile way as his fur began to puff up, and he slowly backed deep into the kitchen.

"C'mon, give it back," Quasimodo insisted with growing irritation, "I need it for my work."

"To make another accident?" Warren challenged, "I don't think so."

Quasimodo sneered at Warren, but tried to smile as he said, "No, not at all, I am a plumber and need to do my job with it."

"Liar!" Warren yelled as he spit out the wrench, "We know you're the one who did all those things, and we can prove it!"

"Foolish naïve brat," Quasimodo sneered as he smiled more malignly, "You have no proof I was behind any of it, even if you did who would believe an undisciplined, destructive, and rowdy bunch of were whelps like you, everyone knows children only lie and are unruly with impulsions."

Warren growled angrily and suddenly leaped at the hunchback plumber and bit his leg hard, making Quasimodo give a surprised cry of pain and swiped at Warren but missed the pup as he dodged back and scampered to another end of the kitchen and Quasimodo leaped for a hanging chain and swung like Tarzan from a vine after poor Warren.

Quasimodo smiled with sinister nostalgia as it was like riding a bicycle for him as he swung about his once beloved kitchen and personal sanctum after the pup and then leaped as he grabbed an iron pan as he careened through the air, but missed as he swung the pan and dropped it as he suddenly found himself ambushed and bitten again on a leg and arm by two more wolf pups defending their sibling. Quasimodo gave more startled cries but just became more peeved as he pulled them from himself and held tightly to the two in one arm.

As he reached to grab another kitchen utensil, a sharp knife most likely, his left arm was suddenly bitten by another wolf pup that seemed to leap out of nowhere, and he bit down on Quasi's arm hard enough to make him let go of his two siblings, but then Quasi grabbed his latest biter by his neck and held him nose to long nose and glared angrily into the now scared little pup's wide yellow eyes.

A shadow from above then eclipsed them both and grew, making both Quasimodo and the pup look up but the pup just smiled mischievously and freed himself from Quasimodo's grip a second before a huge black iron pot was dropped onto Quasimodo and entrapped him by two more were pups and they banged on it, making it ring loudly like a gong.

From behind a slightly opened kitchen door, Elona recorded all that happened and couldn't help but smile at the were pups' antics and prank on the little plumber. Part of her felt sorry for him, but something also told her he could take it. As she continued to record, her vision became blurry for a moment and she felt dizzy as a slight wave of a headache over took her, but she shook it away and just tried to concentrate on getting what she needed.

A little black bat with curly red hair and bright blue eyes then flew down from the shadows above as a little she-wolf pup in a pink dress with a white skull and crossbones came out from hiding in one of the more shadowed corners of the kitchen, the little bat changed to Dennis in a puff of green mist and said loudly to the entrapped Quasimodo,

"We got you now, mean ol' Quasimodo! Admit you made you made those accidents, and we'll go easy on you. Maybe Papa Drac'll even not kick you out of the hotel."

Quasimodo suddenly threw the giant iron pot off of himself with amazing strength, bursting from it like a crazed rabid animal as his bloodshot yellow eyes now radiated a growing angered insanity.

"You little half breed brat!" he shouted, "You know nothing! And your 'Papa Drac' is a fool and a traitor to monster kind, and you are proof of it! I have lived under his thumb for too long, and I will see him pay!"

He suddenly grabbed some chopped up cloves from a counter and threw them at Dennis. The little red headed Vampire tried to just shake off the sudden shock of food thrown in his face and wipe the juices away, but he slowly began to feel sick as his breathing became a bit hard with intermittent gasps.

"Dennis, are you okay?" asked a now concerned Winnie as she held to him.

"I…I…"poor Dennis could only struggle to speak as Quasimodo then grabbed a long deadly kitchen knife as he approached the children and he smile maniacally.

Suddenly over come with a protective impulse, Elona burst through the kitchen door and dropped her iphone as she yelled, "Quasimodo, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

She took hold of Dennis and Winnie as she placed herself between the two young friends and their would-be killer, making Quasimodo go wide eyed at her sudden arrival.

"Ah, _Mademoiselle_ ," he greeted with pseudo pleasantry, "How nice to see you again, what brings you here to my humble domain?"

But Elona wasn't buying any of it as she just seethed, "Save it, creep, I saw what you were about to do, and that tells me you're a psycho, and that's more than enough proof that you had to be behind the so-called accidents the past few weeks."

Quasimodo again went wide eyed and sneered at what she just said. But that sneer became a smirk, which sent a chill down Elona's spine as Quasimodo slowly lowered his makeshift weapon just enough to declare,

"Wi, I and my little partner, Bela, made zose accidents. We caused them all as we planned before, and still we are going to cause more. It was also I who began spreading rumors about humans after Bela overheard you had a bad blood disease, which lead to ze fighting and discrimination between the monsters and vile humans."

Elona gave him a not too surprised but still shocked and disgusted look as she asked with a low gasp, "But, why?"

Quasimodo just gave a frown and look of insult like it should have been obvious, but said with long bottled resentment as he callously waved the knife in the air about him, "Need you ask, woman?! You yourself admit to suffering from your own kinds' hatred, monsters have suffered far longer and this hotel was meant as a safe sanctuary away from that same hatred. But then a pathetic human boy found it because of _Monsieur_ Dracula's carelessness, and should have killed the whelp to keep the secret of the hotel safe, but no, the fool let him stay, and now your baneful kind defile it, mock it with your very presence here and I am going to fix that!"

From another shadowed corner of the kitchen, Warren had found Elona's iphone and quickly brought up a special hotel app and continued to record what was going on. He and his hidden brothers all gave shocked looks at what they just heard Quasimodo say as Warren almost dropped the phone again. Yet a raspy voice from the shadows whispered to him reassuringly,

"Keep recording."

Warren smiled and did as Quasimodo continued to rant in pent up anger,

"I will return this hotel to its rightful illustrious glory as the new and rightful manager! A hotel for monsters and monsters _only_ , as it should be! I sabotaged everything to drive ze humans away, and it was working, and it will still work! And none of you, not you, not Dracula's brat and her human pet, nor their disgusting spawn there, not even Dracula himself will stop me! And not even you!"

Insanity and malice lit his homely face as he raised his knife again, making a gasping and nearly suffocating Dennis and Winnie flinch with fear as Elona held them close to herself, fear lighting her azure blue eyes as a small wave of dizziness over took her again momentarily, but she tried to shake it away.

"Get away from them," a familiar raspy voice warned coldly from the shadows and made Quasimodo almost freeze in place as he looked to a nearby corner where the voice may have come from and saw a pair of narrowed glowing red eyes.

Like a living dark mist, Dracula slowly emerged and took form from the shadows as though he was part of them, forming from them like a tangible darkness himself until the final thin tendrils wisped away, the red from his eyes steadily faded as he emerged, and an air of coldness surrounded him which made Quasimodo quiver with a growing apprehension, while Elona and the children only became filled with hope and relief. With his satin black cape cocooning his figure and with a dark piercing glare in his eyes, he slowly glided between Elona and the children and a near murderous Quasimodo, who then could only give a nervous chuckle.

"Ah, _Bonsuir_ , _Monsieur_ Dracula," the hunchback tried to greet with a crooked nervous smile, "What brings you here?"

"Your confession," Dracula said coldly as his icy blue eyes narrowed dangerously as he looked down at Quasimodo, "And drop the niceties, Wilson, you're through."

"Heh, heh, you heard that?" Quasimodo nearly squeaked like Esmeralda.

"The _entire_ hotel heard it, Baby!" Dracula declared with an icy razor's edge, "I warned you about threatening those I care about, and I won't warn you again. No Mr. Nice Vampire this time, I am going to see you pay."

A deadly chill when down Quasimodo's diminutive spin, turning it a bright yellow, thinking it meant he was going to pay with his blood, and his very life.

"NEVER!" Quasimodo suddenly shouted as he dropped his knife and made a mad dash for the doors as he crashed through them, startling everyone else in the kitchen.

"Guards!" Dracula shouted, and the next instant one appeared with a salute and Dracula ordered it, "Stop Quasimodo immediately, don't let him escape! Lock all the doors in the hotel!"

"Yes, sir," the Armor guard obeyed and loudly clanked off in a rapid march.

He turned back to Elona and the children with a smile, but he face dropped as he saw Dennis nearly suffocating and Elona held the boy close, trying to comfort him.

"You gotta help him, Drac," she said in a worried near panic, "that little bastard threw something at him, and he doesn't look so good now."

Dracula looked Dennis over and his over protectiveness grew as he saw Dennis had become paler than him. He then saw the diced cloves on the counter and took a closer look and sniffed them lightly.

"Garlic," he hissed with some disgust, "Why do I keep this stuff in my kitchen?"

Elona didn't say anything.

He then took Dennis from Elona and protectively wrapped his grandson close with his cape as he tried to control his own growing panic and implored to the little boy,

"Hang on, Denisovich, you're going to be okay, I've got you."

The next instant with remarkable swiftness, Dracula ran with Dennis to the hotel infirmary. Elona just momentarily stared after the light trail of dust Dracula left behind, and she and Winnie finally left the kitchen to help find an on the lam Quasimodo.

But for another moment she had to catch herself at the door as she felt another, but stronger wave of dizziness which she again fought off.

With an adrenaline fueled rush, Quasimodo had run through the halls of Hotel Transylvania, once more easily dodging and evading the Armor guards that tried to stop him and proving his prowess hadn't deteriorated over the years, cackling maniacally as he passed them.

"Hah, hah, missed me, you walking, clanking tin cans!" he mocked as he finally made it to the main Lobby.

As he tried to get through the crowd he heard various angered and displeased voices shouting at him.

"There's the little toll!"

"Get him!"

"Stop him!"

"He's trying to get away, don't let him!"

Hotel guests, humans and monsters alike, gathered closely to try and stop Quasimodo to try and slow down and deter Quasimodo from escaping and it just maddened him more as he pushed him way through and demanded hotly,

"Out of my way, fools! Get out of the way, let me pass!"

He then leaped high like a spring heeled kangaroo and jumped on a Gillman's head to a human man, then to a green faced hag, and just over a twenty something human couple, all of them surprised and annoyed by his leaping about and using their heads as springs or jumping boards.

"Hah, hah!" he laughed as he sighted the front revolving door, certain his escape was assured.

But moments before he could land, a thick wave of indigo mist flared forth from the floor and rose quickly to form into an angered Dracula, making Quasimodo flail in the air and land with a hard bodily thump in front of the Vampire Count and give the hunchback an intimidating and darker version of the glare he gave Johnny when he saw him and Mavis first kissing.

Quasimodo tried to crawl back from his displeased bossed and made another literal leap away, but got caught in mid air by a large blue grey stitched hand by his leg and was held upside down as Frank glared at him and brought Quasimodo back to face and look at Dracula straight in the eye, and he just tried to glare at him defiantly with a sneer.

In the background, a recording of Quasimodo ranting and threatening Elona and the children repeated on the front desk's two big screen monitors, and on everyone's smart phones:

 _"I will return this hotel to its rightful illustrious glory as the new and rightful manager! A hotel for monsters and monsters_ only _, as it should be! I sabotaged everything to drive ze humans away, and it was working, and it will still work! And none of you, not you, not Dracula's brat and her human pet, nor their disgusting spawn there, not even Dracula himself will stop me! And not even you!"_

Quasimodo gave a yelp as Frank let go and he dropped him into the waiting grasps of two Armor guards as a tied up Bela, entangled in silver white spider threads and an angered snare on his bestial face, was lowered beside him by two spiders, and the entire lobby when dead silent with mad and disappointed hotel guests, Dracula, his family, the Drac Pack, and finally an arriving Elona as she went to stand by Dracula.

Quasimodo just looked around in confusion as he could only gasp out, "But how?"

Johnny came up to him with a bit of an easy going but smug smile and held up his smart phone and said as though it was obvious, "An app I made for the hotel, it plays live feeds for announcements or shows people miss or want to see and can download for free. Sure came in pretty handy for your ranting confession just now."

Quasimodo just scowled darkly at Johnny, and Elona finally asked with a bit of her own proud smugness, "So what should be done with our would-be saboteur and criminal mastermind?"

"Throw him out of the hotel!" someone shouted.

"Lock him in a dungeon!" another yelled.

"Suck his blood!" shouted another, making some people give groans.

There came brief shouts of agreement to all of the suggestions, but Dracula yelled with a controlled voice, "Quiet down, everybody!" And the lobby once again gradually grew silent, "I'm not going to do any of that. But rest assured he will be punished now."

But Quasimodo just laughed low like only he knew of a personal secret joke, making everyone glare at him more.

"Heh, heh, heh. And what are you going to do with me, _Monsieur_ Dracula? Ze hotel has no dungeon, and you would never lower yourself to drinking my blood, which you should have done to the boy in _ze first place."_

His homely round face twisted more at the last words he spoke in a heated tone, and made Dracula shiver a bit but he didn't show it to his deranged employee.

"I had my reasons for not killing Johnny," Dracula said more reasonably, if still tensely, "It would have set monsters back hundreds of years, and I vowed never to do that again."

"You should have made an exception," Quasimodo yelled with growing heated anger as he struggled in the tight grasped of the Armor guards, "No one would have known! And since you wouldn't, I would! I was doing you a favor!"

Growing murmurs reverberated throughout the Lobby, making Johnny and Mavis go wide eyed, and Elona gave Quasimodo a near death glare, but Dracula just scoff and said,

"Hardly, not only would you have set monsters back centuries, if not worse you would have robbed my daughter of any future happiness, and it took Johnny finding the hotel to teach me that."

He looked to Mavis and Johnny with a small smile, which they returned, and then he turned to Elona with the same smile, hoping she understood it now meant her, and she returned it with her own shy one.

Dracula then looked back at a snarling Quasimodo and said, "Apparently, you never got that, and still don't get it. If you're so eager to lower yourself, fine, but other monsters won't be going down with you."

"Hah!" Quasimodo just scoffed loudly, "And what could be lower than being a miserable measly plumber? It's what you've had me do for the last twenty years, a pathetic, humiliating, putrid waste of an existence."

Dracula frowned a bit as he groaned a bit, "It's only been seven years."

"It might as well have been 'twenty' for that's how long it felt to me being at the bottom of the barrel," Quasimodo seethed out.

Dracula then smiled sneakily, making Quasimodo loose his angered boldness with widening worried eyes as Dracula then said with that same smile,

"Oh, it'll seem like high living compared to being Glen's keeper."

Quasimodo could only go wide mouthed and wide eyed as he squirmed and struggled again as the Armor guards began to take him away and he yelled,

"No! NOOO! Not that! Anything but that!"

Everyone in the Lobby started to laugh, even if hardly any of the human guests knew who Glen was, as Quasimodo just continued to rant and rave,

"Fools! You're all idiots and fools! I should be manager! Humans and monsters don't belong together! Dracula will be the down fall of the hotel because of it! You'll see, you'll all see!"

But he was soon gone, and Dracula turned his attention to Bela and said, "As for you, pipsqueak…"

"Oh, no," Bela yelled with his own defiance, "Leave me out of it. I only went along for the fun of chaos and destruction, but it got me nowhere, and I have no intent on going back to being a puppy chew toy. I'm outta here."

With amazing strength, Bela snapped the spider threads that held him and he fluttered away with nearly equal amazing speed.

Again murmurs reverberated throughout the Lobby, filling with apologies and reconciliations between human and monster guests who only originally wanted to make friends.

Dracula, Elona, and his family even began to make their way through the Lobby and he went a bit wide eyed to see a familiar human man and his family come up to them, looking a bit ashamed. It was the same man and his family that wanted to leave at first and made the empty threat of a bad online review.

"Hello, Your Grace," the man said, and Dracula gave a polite nod, "I want to say…, well my wife made me see, and I now realize you just must've been under a lot of pressure lately, but uh, I guess I'm just trying to say uh, I'm sorry about what I said to you before."

A long awkward silence followed, but Dracula gave a look to the man and then the wife and son with him, and he gave a small smile and nod, hoping they understood and he accepted the apology.

"Well, I say this calls for a celebration," Johnny said with his ever easy going manner as he hooked arms with Mavis, but Dracula just gave a bit of a frown as he said,

"That would be a good idea, Johnny, but I think after we see if Denisovich is better."

Mavis and Johnny gave soft gasps as worry grew and demanded to know what happened to their son, and Elona told them what happened and showed it on an earlier version of the recording and Dracula reassured them he took Dennis to the infirmary, and last he heard from the doctor Dennis was going to be okay if a little sick and bed ridden for a few days.

Mavis and Johnny gave sighs of relief and went to go see their young son, while Dracula and Elona stayed behind and he took Elona's arm in his own again as he smiled at her and asked,

"Do you have any ideas for a celebration, Elona?"

She just smiled up at him and said playfully, "Well, I wouldn't mind singing with you again, or maybe dancing as I haven't seen you 'bust a move' yet, and I wasn't a bad dancer myself back in the day."

They shared a bit of a laugh, but then Elona grasped her head as she felt the strongest wave of dizziness yet, and this time she barely resisted it.

"Elona, are you okay?" asked Dracula with growing concern.

"I'm fine," she tried to reassure him, "I think I just…need…to…uhhh…"

Her vision suddenly went blurry as her eyes rolled back into her head and blacked out as she fainted into Dracula's arms.

"Elona!" he cried with a growing panic, and he held her close as he fell with her to his knees, "No! No, no, no, please! Help! Somebody help me!"

Gathering his wits and trying not to lose it, he gingerly wrapped Elona close into his cape and teleported in a thick billow of indigo and purple mist to the infirmary again.


	15. Return to Me pt 1

Return to Me pt. 1

Monster doctors and nurses got an unconscious Elona comfortable in an infirmary bunk, and while Dracula desperately wanted to be by her side, they told him to wait so they could check her over.

Johnny and Mavis soon found him moping and sometimes pacing for what seemed to him like hours.

"What happened, Dad?" Mavis asked with worry, "Where's Elona?"

"I don't know," Dracula said with a controlled broken voice, "She just fainted and the doctor hasn't told me anything yet."

Mavis and Johnny could only give him sympathetic looks, and decided to wait with him for moral support about any news about Elona. While Mavis and Johnny sat down, Dracula most often only sat for a minute or two, and then would glide in a back and forth pace with his cape cocooned around him and hunched over, and to Johnny he looked like a big Question mark, all while with a deep worried frown on his pale face.

A three eyed serpentine and squid like monster doctor finally opened the door and Dracula was at him in a whoosh before he fully emerged.

"Doctor, how is she?" Dracula asked in a breath, "Will she be alight?"

The doctor removed his mask to reveal a frowning reptilian face with several feelers on his chin like a long beard and a look of uncertainty in all three of his yellow-green eyes.

"I'm not sure, Count," he said with a rather gurgly voice, "I know very little about human sicknesses, and I don't know what this 'Hiv' is, but it will be best to find a human doctor who does. Right now I've just made her comfortable, but she's gone cold to the touch and feels feverish in the head, and she's unresponsive to the any stimuli so far like she's in a deep sleep she can't come out of."

Dracula's face just dropped deeper and deeper from what his was told, and for some long moments it was as though time and the world had just stopped, even the beating of his own undead heart become silent as though it had been ripped from his chest by one of Wayne's less friendly cousins.

Mavis and Johnny were silent, too, unsure if they should say anything to comfort him, but Dracula finally came out of his shock and said with a tense calmness and toneless voice to the monster doctor, "Thank you, Doctor."

The monster doctor just gave a nod and left them alone, but Dracula whirled quickly to them and said low but tensely and urgently to Johnny and Mavis, "Johnny, go into town and find a doctor, there has to be one that knows about HIV, and Mavis and I will try to find one here."

They both just stood still for a moment in doubt as Johnny said, "Are you sure, Drac? That could be almost like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"I don't care," he nearly seethed, "We have to help her, I won't lose her. Not again."

Mavis and Johnny gave each other looks at Dracula's strange behavior, but Johnny finally said, "Okay, Drac, I'm on it."

But before he could leave, Dracula took him aside and said, "Oh, and Johnny, I need another favor while you're in town."

"Sure, bud, what do you need?"

He took Johnny to a far corner, then seeing Mavis was still there, he took them into a closed closet and tensely whispered to Johnny what he wanted with a very hesitant and embarrassed voice, and it made Johnny go wide eyed.

"Oookay," he droned out, "What kind? There's a lot of different kinds."

"I don't care," Dracula said with a toneless voice of his own, "Just bring me all of them if you have to, or whatever you can carry."

"Riiight," Johnny returned and soon left for the nearby town.

Dracula, Mavis, and even all of his friends began to ask if there was a human doctor at the hotel who could help Elona, and possibly asked every single remaining human there if there was a doctor, or if they knew a doctor. There were still a few but none of them were the kind Dracula hoped for, such as a pediatrician, a dentist, and even a foot doctor, which made him raise an eyebrow.

A little more than a two hours later, though it may as well have been years to Dracula, he was beginning to lose any hope of helping Elona until he finally saw Johnny return in the lobby, with a strangely familiar human with him and he carried a few brown bags full of boxes he was unsuccessfully trying to hide.

Dracula was in front of Johnny in a flash as the younger man said, "Hey, Drac, I, uh, I got that stuff you wanted. And this is Dr. Simon, and he says he's an old friend of yours."

Dracula just quirked an eyebrow as he eyed the short and chubby human man before him, certain he had never seen him before in his life.

"Hello, Dracula," he said in a slightly familiar voice, "It's been a while. You might remember me better with white make up and dressed up like you."

Dracula eyed the man more closely, he now wore a casual shirt and jeans but carried a white doctor's coat and suitcase with him, his skin was a fair pink and his combed back hair was a light brown peppered with some gray instead of died jet black.

"Oh, yes," Dracula said as recognition slowly grew in him, "The fake me who kept saying bleh, bleh-bleh."

He glared intimidatingly at Dr. Simon straight in the eye and said bluntly, "FYI, I don't say that."

"If you say so," he said with a nervous chuckle, but couldn't help but say 'bleh, bleh-bleh' under his breath.

Dracula just rolled his eyes and groaned, "I don't have time for this, just tell me you can help her."

Dr. Simon got a little more serious and professional as he said, "Johnny here told me a friend of yours has a case of HIV and has fainted. I had some colleagues of mine gather and make copies of information about the disease, but I need to see the patient and know more about her if I can help her at all."

"C'mon, follow me," Dracula directed them and lead them to the infirmary.

The human doctor and monster doctor again told Dracula, Johnny, and Mavis to wait, very much to Dracula's chagrin. After more tense silence and glided pacing, an hour later the doctors appeared with blank expressions, which did little to lift Dracula's spirits.

"I'm sorry, your Lordship," Dr. Simon said with a low toneless voice, "It's as Dr. Viperstein feared, she's in a coma."

"A coma?" Dracula gasped.

"Wait, there's hopeful news though," he continued, "It's a kind of mild one as I've diagnosed it was likely caused by a light stroke due to her neglecting taking or not having necessary medications."

Dracula raised a worried eyebrow, not knowing what to say as Johnny then explained, "I think he means because Elona didn't take medicines she needed, that's why she fainted."

"I know what he means, Jonathan," Dracula snapped with a hiss, scaring his son-in-law, "The question is what can you do about it."

Dr. Simon got a bit thoughtful as he continued, "I have some ideas, but if I knew what she was prescribed before it would help her in the long run and she might wake up from this coma in a few days or weeks at most."

"A few _weeks_?!" Dracula yelled in growing outrage and worry, actually scaring the doctor.

He then tried to calm down as he gave a frustrated sighing grunt and said, "Johnny, go to her room, see what kind of medicine she needed."

Johnny gave a reluctant sigh as he said, "I don't know, Drac, I don't like the idea of going through her stuff and invading her privacy."

"There's no choice, Johnny, now go," Dracula ordered him with a controlled hard voice and Johnny immediately left with apprehension in his step, while Mavis stayed with him and sat with him as she held his hands.

Johnny soon found her new room, and found her still packed bags in the master bed room. As he went through them, he found some nearly empty prescription bottles, and he then heard an unfamiliar and faint electronic tune, like a ring tone. Johnny found Elona's laptop/tablet hybrid on the work desk, and though reluctant to invade more into her privacy, something told him to answer it.

He opened the computer and saw the face of an older woman with a medium brown hair color similar to Elona's, but in a pixie cut, and some features resembling hers, but she had walnut brown eyes.

"Hello," Johnny said politely, "I'm Johnny, a friend of Elona's, who am I talking to?"

"Uh, hello?" the woman said confused, "I'm Liz. Where's Ellie?"

"Uh," Johnny breathed with deep hesitation, "I'm sorry, Liz, but Elona's in the hotel infirmary, she's fallen into a coma."

"What?" Liz yelled, "Is she going to be okay? What've you done to my sister?"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down," he tried to reassure her, "We got a doctor, and we're doing everything we can for her."

"You aren't that guy she told me about," Liz said with some suspicion, "A guy she said was tall, dark, and handsome, but hinted at being a Count and a hotel manager. Did he do something to her?" She began to seethed, "If he hurt her, I'll rip him a new one by ripping his balls off, because she went through enough of that with that jackass, Jason."

"What? No," Johnny tried to reason with Liz, "Drac would never hurt her, he's an awesome guy, and I think this is hitting him hardest 'cause she fainted right in his arms. In fact, I think he's way crazy about her, just too scared or shy to make a wrong move as he's so old school about being a gentleman."

"Oh, well, good," Liz said a little more calmly, but then got suspicious again as she said, "Wait a minute, 'Drac'?"

Johnny got a bit hesitant as he got a weird feeling Liz didn't know too much and Elona might want that way, or Liz might not even believe monsters are real like Elona did at first, so he just told her urgently, "Uh, I can't explain right now, but maybe you can help me, Liz, maybe tell me what you know about her condition or if you know what kind of prescriptions she needs."

Liz just gave a frown as she said, "I'm sorry, Johnny, I just know she has HIV-1 and needed plenty of medicine since then. But I'm also certain she got it from Jackass Jason since she discovered he was nothing but an uncaring and unfaithful sex driven womanizer who never used protection."

"Uhh, right," Johnny breathed awkwardly, then said in good faith, "Well, if you do think of anything, Liz, here's my e-mail and cell number, and don't worry, Elona's gonna be fine I know it."

Liz just gave a polite nod and good-bye as Johnny closed the computer and ran back to the infirmary, his legs looking like blurred circles.

At her desk, in her suburban Chicago home Elizabeth Skywolf closed her computer with a worried frown on her face, unaware she wasn't alone until someone said,

"Is Ellie going to be okay, Liz? Sounds like she might be in trouble."

She turned with a start to see her little brother, Sean, as he munched on an apple as he leaned against the wall.

"How long have you been there?" Liz asked with some annoyance and suspicion.

"Long enough to hear she's in trouble and we should bring her home," Sean said with determination, "It's what Mom and Dad would want."

"You can't hold down a steady job or find your own place, and you want to go to the other side of the world to God knows where and spend thousands of dollars we don't have just to bring Ellie home?" Liz questioned, and Sean just gave a blank look and shrugged.

"I know it's the right thing and sensible thing to do," Liz breathed, "But like I just said, we don't have that kind of money right now, even with some of the money I've saved and the few thousand Grandpa left for me and Dan, but that's for my kids college fund. Besides, after everything that's happened it has to be her choice to come home, and something tells me she's in good hands."

"But you can't really be sure of that," Sean argued, "All you have is the word of some '90s reject. Why wouldn't you want to find Ellie and bring her home?"

Liz gave a low sigh as she said, "Like I said, it has to be her choice, and I don't think she will after how Mom and Dad treated her, Mom with all the religious views, and Dad still friends with Jackass Jason."

Sean gave a grunt as she said, "Hey I don't like the guy, either, you know how condescending he is to me, thinking he's better than me because I wasn't in the Marines like he was and makes fun of me for being a wuss all because I'm…"

Liz put a sisterly hand on his shoulder as he seethed with frustration, and he calmed down with a deep breath after a minute.

"So what are we supposed to do, Liz?" Sean asked, "Just abandon her to whatever fate she's in now, never see her again? Can we even trust that Johnny guy at his word, and who's this 'Drac' guy, anyway? Not another phony Prince Charming wolf in sheep's clothing kind like her last boyfriend, I hope."

Liz gave a sigh as she said, "No, we won't abandon her, we never did, but she felt like we did after she lost her job and Dad thought he could make things right with her and Jackass Jason after they fought. He still thinks he can 'set the boy straight' and be a fatherly figure to him, but Dad is either too dense or too stubborn to see it won't work, that guy will never change, and she had the right sense to get out of that relationship. And I'm not sure if Johnny meant to say 'Drac' or 'Drake', or even who he might be, other than Ellie said he's a European Count and a hotel manager, though I'm not sure how he can be both. And from the way she described him, she got that really dreamy look in her eyes that tells me there's something there, and it was different from how she felt about any guy she's dated."

Sean gave a small smile, glad to hear one of his sisters might be okay and she at least found someone who actually cares about her could make her happy. They both shared a moment of silence as Liz held her little brother's shoulder, praying Elona with be okay then Liz said,

"I'll check with this Johnny later this week, see if there's any change to Ellie and maybe he can tell me what she's been up to. But in the meantime, you said you were going to go out and find a job, and that's exactly what you're going to do."

She pushed him towards her house's front door as he protested, "But the kids wanted to play a board game with their Uncle Sean, something different from online games."

"You can play after you're employed again, now go."

She pushed him out the door and closed it in his face and Sean just stood there for a few long moments puzzled and flabbergasted. But then he could only shake his head and shrug as he got into his old junker of a car and drove into the city.

Back at Hotel Transylvania, another few hours later Dracula, Johnny, and Mavis were finally allowed to see a bedridden Elona, and Dracula just fell to his knees at what he saw of her now.

She lay in her infirmary bunk in crisp bed sheets, and she had been hooked up to a few strange machines Dr. Simon had brought in from the town's hospital and gave off strange noises, such as a faint beeping that measured her heart rate, and one gave off a low hissing as he saw a thin tube hooked to her nose and go over her ears, and her ring finger on her left hand was squeezed with a weird tan clasp, and another tube went into her arm from a tall poll from a clear bag full of some clear liquid.

Dracula ever so gently took one of her hands into his cool pale ones as his face dropped into a deep sad frown, worry and despair grew within him as he looked at a now unconscious Elona as she looked so small, frail, and delicate just laying where she was; once so alive, intelligent, fiery, gentle, compassionate, philosophical, and somehow passionate in everything she did despite the lingering emotional pain he saw her struggle with every day.

It made his heart ache as he felt powerless to do anything to help her, and he again could only wait as Dr. Simon went back into town to find more human medicine to help his beloved after Johnny gave him Elona's prescriptions.

Dracula ever so lightly and gently stroked her hand with the end of his thumb as he looked at her in silence, emotions he tried to keep at bay in his mind swirled and churned within him; a small storm of sadness, worry, and despair, but all were being over powered by a growing frustration and anger as he just needed to do something right now to help her, and not sit idly by and watch her possibly wither away, though Mavis and Johnny remained with him for a time to try and reassure him.

A few days later, they came to the infirmary to find Dennis was perfectly fine after some bed rest and excellent care from the monster doctor, but also found Dracula hadn't moved from Elona's side the entire time, and that began to worry Mavis deeply. In the time he was there, he held her hand, caressed her face with the back of his hand, and spoke to her quietly about anything that was on his mind, or hoping she heard him as he encouraged her and hoped for her to wake up soon.

"Dad," she said quietly, but he barely gave any indication he heard her, "You don't need to be here."

"I won't leave her," he said low with a stubborn tone, "I failed her once, like I failed your mom. I won't fail again. She needs me."

"Dr. Simon's doing everything he can for her," Johnny tried to reason, "He said she'll wake up on her own eventually."

"It's not enough," Dracula whispered harshly, "Maybe I should get the housekeeping witches to brew up a healing potion, surely that will wake her up."

"No, Dad, we don't know what effect it will have on her because our doctors don't know anything about HIV, and you've seen some of the side effects those potions have on some human guests, they could just make her worse."

Johnny could only shiver and hold back a smirk at the side effects he heard of; fortunately none had been fatal or lethal, mostly humiliating like humans suddenly having literal chicken legs and laying eggs, giving off animal sounds when they tried to talk, or sprouting daisies all over their bodies. In the end, it all wore off at some point and most humans just took it in stride and still had a great time at Hotel Transylvania.

"Then if not the witches healing potions," he said, "Then maybe _I_ can heal her, bring her back, I've been thinking about doing it anyway for a few days."

Mavis and Johnny went wide eyed as Dracula slowly leaned over Elona, his eyes glowed faintly red as he opened his mouth wide as he gave off a soft hiss and his fangs slowly grew.

"Drac, no," Johnny said with near panic.

"Dad, don't," Mavis pleaded to him, and he actually stopped as the glow faded from his eyes and sat back down, "Don't force it, haven't you learned that already? You don't know what your bite will do to her, maybe just make her worse. Give it time, like I said, Dr. Simon said she'll wake up on her own eventually."

"It's too long," he moaned from some wariness as he rubbed his temple, "I know it's only been a few days, and I may be immortal, but it already feels like centuries."

"Then maybe you should leave for a little while," Johnny said low with some nervousness, "Get out and get some fresh air for a few hours. Besides, you still have a hotel to run, and you need to eat."

"The hotel can wait," he argued low, "And I'll eat when I want to."

Mavis and Johnny could only glance at each other, not sure how to reach him. Seeing there was no persuading him for now, they left him alone again with Elona.

Another three days went by, and at certain times Dr. Simon returned to take notes on Elona's vitals, and stuck a needle in the IV catheter to put something more into Elona's 'morphine' or 'penicillin', whatever those were, which at first worried Dracula as he got over protective of her at the doctor's intentions and what he was doing, but Dr. Simon tried to reassure the infamous Vampire Lord everything was going to be okay with Elona, despite being intimidated by his favorite monster. Despite this, Dracula supervised and watched everything the doctor did and made sure he did it right and on the dot.

Nearly two weeks had gone by, and while Dracula still waited for Elona to awaken, it was agonizing despite trying to be patient.

One day, near twilight the waiting had become completely unbearable, and while Dracula again held her hand, a tense burning had grown within him. It made Dracula unintentionally squeeze Elona's hand tightly as he felt it grow, and he growled low in the back of his throat and his eyes glowed ruby red.

He knew this was his Hunger growing, and it wanted to be released, to be set free to feed and consume, but he couldn't and won't allow that, as there is no real way to satiate it.

But it gnawed at him, little by little it pecked and pealed its way to the surface, festering his soul away and chipping away the walls of his psyche, the predator within yearned to hunt and feed before it starved away and went mad. And one irony was it was his own Hunger that was driving him mad, alongside the need to protect and defend his 'mate.'

It wasn't fair, his mate should be alive and well, rightfully by his side at that very moment.

He tried to shake such thoughts away from his mind fearful how they were and weren't his. Yet the burning grew within him, and seemed to intensify as he tried to resist and suppress it. It wasn't made any easier with Vlad came back for a brief visit, asked to come by Mavis to try and help her father but things were less than successful.

Shortly after Vlad's quick visit, there then came a low knock at the door and Mavis and Dennis slowly came in with a tray of food for him, which was gently placed on a nearby table with a low soft clank, the only noise to be heard in such quiet tenseness.

"We thought you'd be hungry, Dad," Mavis said gently, and he just gave a brief glance and small nod of thank you.

Mavis didn't know if she should anything more, but she still told him, "Johnny talked with Liz again today, and she sounds nice. She says Elona's family misses her and they hope she comes home, but she knows she won't with Jason there and hopes you're treating her well. This Liz even said that he's talking about getting back together with her, which isn't going to happen, right, Dad?"

"Never," he growled low, the burning grew stronger in his chest and churned his stomach, and Mavis felt a chill go down her spine.

"Well," she said low, "If you need anything, we'll be keeping an eye on the hotel. It not as easy as you make it look, Dad, but I've done my best to run and maintain it like you've taught me. We're here if and when you need us."

Dracula just gave a small nod, but before Mavis left Dennis asked low, "Papa, when Miss Elona's better, can she play with us? I want to play Hide and Go Seek Sharp Objects or Fly Tag with her, that would be fun."

Dracula gave a small glimpse to his grandson, and gave a small smile again as he said low and tensely, "Yes, Denisovich, that would be fun."

Mavis and Dennis just looked at each other as they left without another word, worry and sadness colored their faces.

Dracula remained silent as he continued to hold Elona's hand, slightly cooled but still warmer than his, then gave a cold glimpse to the food tray, a snarling monster meat sandwich with marrow chips and cockroach dip, and a full cup of his favorite Blood Beaters.

Yes, he was hungry, absolutely peckish. But that wasn't what he needed.

Keeping some control, he locked the infirmary door tightly, and made Elona a little more comfortable as he caressed her cheek and covered her face with feather light kisses.

Like a living shadow he went to the window and shifted to a bat as he telekinetically locked the window tightly, curtain his beloved was now save while he was away.

He flew out into the wondrous blue black night as stars began to peak out and twinkle and glow, but he ignored them as they didn't offer much comfort and hence were not an omen of joy and wonder this night. His acute bat hearing heard the sounds and calls of wild animals in the night, echoing in from the forest and they called to him.

The primal need to hunt beckoned him.

His eyes glowed a deep blood red and he flew out to the forest with a dark trail of indigo mist behind him as though he were now a large blue firefly, and he let instinct take him where it will.

At last, he was once more in his rightful element.

He started small, with insects, scorpions, spiders, and skittering rodents. They can't escape him as he heard them as clear as a bell with his honed acute bat hearing and beyond, as he is a supernatural creature of the night.

But it wasn't enough, not nearly enough. His Hunger demanded more, much more. He went on to slightly bigger prey, such as squirrels and rabbits, draining them dry of every drop of life sustaining red nectar that pumped through their bodies. But they still weren't enough, and it was becoming all the more frustrating.

He needed bigger and more dangerous prey to feed upon, something of a challenge, and he knew exactly whose blood he wanted, this Jason bastard who dared to wound and harm his wonderful mate. But he dared not make such a long and arduous journey to the other side of the world, dared not leave his love unprotected and vulnerable, and it angered him all the more at such frustrating unfairness.

And no doubt that accursed Quasimodo was also to blame, for coming so close to hurting her and his wonderful kind vampson. No doubt that little insipid, troublemaking, malformed piece of scion trash was a strong reason for how she is now, causing both him and her such grief, enough she's neglected her medicine and now lays still and silent in a kind of near death slumber.

He gave an angered growl as he resumed his true form, but now with his face appearing more sunken and skull like and his skin a chalk white, his nails growing long and sharp like deadly claws as his figure became more enveloped in a deepening black mist like his body was made of nothing but shadows.

The burning inside was become a righteous rage to defend, protect, and heal the woman he had come to care for with a deepening affection and love, a love he now came to understand every day now as she stayed at his hotel to be his other half, his soul mate, his new Zing.

But it tore him apart as he tried to remember Martha had been his Zing, and he had to be betraying her memory even now as he grew feelings for another woman, a woman of a species he had loathed for a long time, and he hated himself for it, as well as the entire situation she was in now, and he could do nothing to help her.

The rage burned hotter and stronger within him now, like a growing flame set to explode and expand forth from an unknown and deep shadowy fathom of the darkest and most primal reaches of his soul.

His Hunger needed, nay, demanded to be satiated, for then, and only then will he be strong enough to defend his mate and his territory.

He went after yet bigger and bigger game; weasels and badgers, moles, but they still weren't enough. He fed on several more rabbits; then went for some wild boars, deer, and wild mountain goats, and few of them fought back. He dared not go after the bigger wild predators such as foxes, wolves, wild cats, or bears, out of respect of being hunters like himself. At least not yet.

But all the animal blood in the forest he feasted on will not be nearly enough, he needed something stronger, the blood of intelligent creatures, for that is where the true power of blood dwelt.

He sniffed the air, and he gave a small smile of malice as he realized he was now not too far from the human town; and he made his way towards it as a silent shadow in the night.

A large and grimy figure made his way through a near by deserted dark alley way as he followed his target, a lone single young woman on her way home after working late at a fashion boutique. He needed a release after a couple of small muggings from late night drinkers, one of which he had to fight off as he slit the guy's throat and made a very unsavory mess, but he'd learned to live to with it. He had been on the run from the authorities for months now, all the way from Zurich and this town was just another stop for him.

For a moment he looked to the side and then behind himself feeling as though he himself was being followed, and a shadow seemed to fade away. He dismissed it as someone else going a different way and as his imagination trying to play tricks on him, as no one ever dared to follow and stalk a professional stalker like him.

He then made the mistake of not noticing he had kicked a can near some trash bins, and this made the woman turn suddenly and see him. She then knew he was trouble, and gave a small gasp as she ran down another deserted street to try and elude him, but he knew it was futile, and a malicious smirk came to his homely face as he cornered her in dead end back alley.

He was remarkably fast for someone his size and burly build, but it came as a requirement to evade and elude the police and other law enforcement if he was to survive.

He then suddenly pinned the woman beneath himself, as he was upon her in seconds, and he held a large hunting knife to her throat as he said with a greasy voice,

"Just relax, sweetheart, we're gonna have some fun."

She struggle beneath as she whimpered and moaned in fear, a tear ran down her cheek, neither of them noticed a black mist behind them, like a living shadow with barely the faintest whisper yet had brought with it a cold chill to the air and a feeling of growing uneasiness from the most primal depths of the psyche for instinctual survival.

The would be assailant and his victim both seemed to freeze with a different kind of growing fear as the man slowly turned his head to see from the darkness of the alley a pair of deep red glowing eyes and heard a faint but growing snarl of an animal.

Suddenly, a humanoid figure in black leaped out at them and snagged the assailant by the scruff of his shirt and pinned him to the wall with inhuman strength and growled at the man like a big cat with deadly long fangs, and locked his gaze with the eyes of a demon.

The man whimpered with dread, unsure of what to say or do as this monster looked ready to eat him, worse, knowing he was a Vampire, suck his blood dry.

Dracula could smell the many humans and their life sustaining blood that permeated the air, and it invigorated him, excited him to find it so plentiful to quench his growing bloodlust.

He had followed this human in unseen stealth, and could see with such clarity the human's body heat and could hear the quickening pounding of his heart, and the smell of his blood beckoned him as he will gladly drain it dry until the human looked like a deflated whoopee cushion.

Dracula gave off the faint hiss of a snake as he slowly opened his mouth wide and his fangs grew longer, ready to pierce into the man's vulnerable neck and allow him to feed. He then heard the low whimpering of the victimized woman, and glared at her with his glowing eyes, saw her huddling against the wall in fear not knowing what to do, whether she should help the man or run for her own life.

Dracula looked to her and back at the man, a creature he could smell a form of hostility and malevolency from, telling the Vampire this human in a sense was a hunter and predator like himself, which made him respect the man. But it also had a stench of cowardliness to it, and it insulted his senses. He looked back at the human woman, who was clearly the prey, a scared fawn trying to hide itself in safety. But somehow he saw something else from the woman, as she suddenly reminded him of someone he knew, someone very precious and important to him; his little girl, Mavis, and somehow she reminded him of wonderful fiery Elona.

He grabbed his head and squeezed his eyes shut as he struggled with himself, groaning as though from an aching migraine. He let go of the would be rapist, who just slid down the brick wall in silent shock and didn't move, while Dracula looked at the fearful victimized woman with remorseful blue eyes and told her in a low voice,

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Run, run while you can."

She slowly got up, staring at him in apprehension and uncertainty as she slowly made her way to the mouth of the alley.

"Run! I don't want to hurt you!" Dracula pleaded to her as he tried to hold back a snarl, and she did.

Not wanting to be caught or seen, he became a shadow again and disappeared into the night, while the man just sat where he was until he was found by the town's police.

Dracula struggled to maintain control as he hurried back to the hotel, but his Hunger was proving difficult to control and he knew he needed one last big kill to satisfy it.

He smelled nearby prey and went after it; a strong but elderly bear who knew it's time was ending. The old bear briefly fought back at Dracula, but the stronger Vampire won and sank his fangs into its neck to grant it a mercy kill, of which the bear welcomed and finally found peace.

He soon made it back to the hotel, right back to Elona's bunk in the infirmary with a heavy breath as he sat in a chair by her side again. With some blue mist, he brought the tray of monster food to himself and began to take small bites when he heard a knock at the door and he opened it telekinetically.

It was Mavis and Johnny coming to check on him.

"Hey, Dad, are you feeling any better?" Mavis asked.

"Of course, Mavy," he said as he took another bite, "You were right, I just needed to eat something. I just started, so I'm going to be okay, just like I keep hoping Elona will be okay."

"Of course she will, Dad, because she has you," Mavis tried to reassure him, then noticed something a little strange, red drool from the corner of his mouth.

"Uh, Dad, you got a little something uh…" she gesture to her chin as Dracula gave a raised eye brow then wiped at his face.

"Oh, Thank you, Mavis, I can be messy eater sometimes," he said as he gave a low chuckle.

Mavis and Johnny laughed with him, but Johnny's smile seemed crooked and nervous as a chill went down his spine.

Another week passed, and the wait still frustrated and agonized Dracula, but when his family and the Drac Pack came to visit and cheer him up and give more moral support, he now seemed less cold and hostile to everyone. Even the girls came more often to quietly talk and encourage their ailing friend, and Dracula tolerated the occasional brash statement from Eunice with a stone faced frown.

Dr. Simon even said her vitals were looking stronger and she should awaken any day now, and while this was great news to Dracula, it was still nearly unbearable to wait as he hoped with all his might she would awaken any minute now.

As the week neared an end, Dracula still sat by her side and gently held her hand and stroked her hair as he said low and tenderly,

"You're going to be alright. Somehow, whatever it takes, I will find a way to cure you. I promise you, I won't fail you again, and I will always be here to protect you."

He gently laid his head near her shoulder as he held her hand for some long moments, then he seemed to feel it clasp his. At first he thought it was just his hopeful imagination as he gave a soft gasp and watched with growing hopeful anticipation as Elona finally stirred and slowly opened her eyes.

"Nnn," she moaned low, "Wh…where am I? Mom? Dad, is that you?"

"No," Dracula said gently as he smiled and held her cheek, "But, it's okay, Elona, it's me."

She looked at him with a confused look, like she didn't know him, and it made his face drop and his heart sink.

"Who…who are you?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

"Elona, it's me, Dracula."

"Dracula?!" she groaned with fear, making him give a heartbroken frown.

She didn't know him, why didn't she know him? What's happened to her, to her memory?

She gave another groan as she closed her eyes again then looked at him again as she said, "Wait, Drac? Stubborn hard headed, charming and funny, wonderful singer, but a big stick in the mud Vampire who runs a hotel for monsters, and now people?"

"Yes, yes," he breathed with some growing relief as a smile grew on his face as she finally recognized him.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You fainted," he said a bit grimly, "You've been in a coma for a long time. Well, three and a half weeks, but for me it felt like centuries of eternity."

"Three and a half weeks?" she gasped, but Dracula just placed a finger on her lips as he said gently,

"Shh, it doesn't matter, you're finally awake, and you're safe. I'm here."

She gave a small smile.


	16. Return to Me pt 2

Return to Me pt. 2

Word quickly spread to the others that Elona had finally awakened, and she got visits from Eunice and the girls, who brought her heartfelt if rather macabre Get Well gifts like a zombie teddy bear dressed as a mad scientist and brain shaped balloons; Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis also came to see her, and Dennis couldn't thank her enough for helping him and Winnie from mean Quasimodo, and Elona couldn't help but smile at him and be showered by hugs, but when the adorable little boy was gone, a sense of emptiness and sadness would overcome her.

Dr. Simon kept her in the infirmary for another two days to be looked over and recover in comfort, but was soon finally allowed to return to, and rest and recover in her hotel suite/apartment, where Dracula helped her to resettle in and make sure she remembered how to do even the simplest task.

Of course as much as she appreciated it, she felt very uncomfortable even when he made sure she remembered how to walk, eat, or even brush her teeth; he even wanted to make sure she remembered how to dress herself, but she made it very clear he wasn't allowed near her during that and she needed privacy.

As the next week progressed, Dracula even took it upon himself to closely follow Dr. Simon's instructions for Elona's progress to the letter, as she was to avoid certain kinds of activities that might over exert her, and she was given new prescriptions she was to take at certain times every day, which Dracula made sure she did on the dot.

One amazingly sunny day she wanted to go swimming in the pool before the weather got too cool, and she made her way to the large green watered hotel pool in a two piece bikini with a pastel flower pattern on it, and she wore water shoes while her hair was tied back with a tight blue scrunchy, and as she walked by other hotel guests, both human and monster, she got the occasional wolf whistle or cat call from men as they saw her in her swim suit and he graceful lithe muscular dancer's build with a slender hourglass figure. She would give a brief smile as she walked by, and sway her hips a little more seductively.

She finally came to an unoccupied lounge chair and put a bright blue beach towel with whimsical orange fish blowing bubbles on it, and made her way to a shallow end of the pool for a nice quick dip, but just as she was at the edge to the first step, indigo mist billowed up before her, making her gasp as Dracula appeared before her with his cape cocooning him. He waved a finger at her as he seethed at her in a near panic,

"No, no, no, what do think you're doing?"

He hardly noticed he started to steam heavily as Elona groaned at him, "I'm just going for a quick swim, and you're smoking."

He finally gave a brief grunt of pain as small patches of his pale skin reddened and his clothes burned in some places, making Elona give a look of growing concern for him, but he just shrugged it off as he protectively wrapped her in his cape to cover her scantily clad figure and quickly walked her to a heavily shaded area, where he quickly healed and she pushed him off of her and he gave a wide eyed look of confusion.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she seethed at him, "Why did you have to go and embarrass me like that? I'll be fine, I just want to go swimming."

"No, you mustn't do that," he argued, "The doctor said you shouldn't do anything to over exert yourself for at least two weeks, or you'll hurt yourself."

"I hardly think a quick refreshing dip will kill me, besides I already called him and asked and he said a light swim with be good exercise for me."

"Maybe, but not at the cost of you getting hurt. Besides, look at you, you're completely exposed." He gestured to her two piece bikini, trying hard not to sweat as he glared at her a bit and he felt a growing hotness within himself as his heart pounded hard in his chest and he had to fight a very male urge to embrace her at the sight of her nearly bare figure as he felt a hardness growing in his pants.

"It's a normal swim suit for this day and age!" she nearly yelled, "Not like those impractical heavy wool things they had to wear two hundred years ago."

Dracula just frowned as he said, "That's beside the point, I want you healthy and safe. Speaking of which, it's time for your medicine again."

He revealed one of her new prescriptions, which she then took grudgingly as he gave her purified water to drink, which it seems it's all he'd allow her to drink at all, aside from certain kinds of approved fruit and veggie juices as he wouldn't let her even touch a diet soda.

She began to make her way back to the pool again, but Dracula tightly grabbed her arm which she swatted away.

"This has to stop, Drac," she said with a hard edge, "I may have special health needs, but I'm not a child."

"I'm only making sure you stay healthy and don't fall into another near-death sleep again," he argued, "Right before you finally woke up I promised I would always protect you, and as a Dracula I keep my word, because a Dracula's word is sacred."

"Well, you've taken it too far!" she yelled, "For the last week you've been hovering over my shoulder about every little thing and it has to stop. I don't feel protected, I feel, I don't know, like I'm being suffocated or babied or something, like you don't think I'm recovered or strong enough to have a small semblance of independence. I've never seen this side of you, and I'm scared to think it'll make you possessive. It's not normal!"

"Actually, this kind of is normal for him," Mavis said a bit casually, and they looked to see her and Johnny in swim wear sitting at a nearby table half covered in shade.

Johnny wore a pair of brightly colored and rather loud and loosely fitting swim trunks and sat on a sunny side of the table, while Mavis sat on the shaded side, but her whole body was a stark white covered in sunscreen while she wore her bright pink wide brimmed hat and sunglasses with her black and red stripped swimsuit.

"He's been like that with my whole life, and still is with Dennis," she groaned with a shrug as she took a sip of blood red punch and nodded to Dennis, Winnie, and other monster and human kids playing in the currently shaded new kiddy pool area, "Welcome to my world."

She and Johnny laughed while Dracula just glared annoyed at them, and Elona took that chance to go back to the pool. She was out in the Sun when Dracula finally noticed and ran after her as he reached out to her as he nearly panicked,

"Elona, get back here! Ow!"

His hand had gotten into the Sunlight and it burned him, making him pull his arm back from the burning pain as he shook it away. Elona just stood out in the Sunlight with her hands on her thrust out hips as she teased smugly, "What's the matter, can't handle a little sunburn?"

Dracula glared hotly at her and warned with an empty threat, "You get back here right now or I'll…"

"Or you'll what?" Elona shot back, "Burn all over me? Bite me and drain my blood?" He glared at her dangerously for that, not knowing how close to home that hit for him.

"Look, Dracula," she groaned, "I know you're just trying to help me, but I don't need you watching over my shoulder 24/7. If I stay in my room and do nothing all day, I'll go bug crap crazy."

"I just want you to be safe," he yelled, "I'm a Count, and a gentleman, and I keep my promises, just like I promised Martha I'd keep Mavis safe forever, and I promised you I will be there and protect you!"

But Elona just rolled her eyes as his excuses and groaned more, "Ugh, I don't need this right now. Just leave me alone and stop treating me like a child, I'm not your property!"

She turned away from him as he gave a hurt look as some resounding shouts of approval came from other female guests, while male guests gave more wolf whistles and cat calls, which made Dracula's eyes glow laser red with a growing burning jealousy as he watched Elona dive head first into the deep end of the pool. For a long heart stopping fearful moment he was certain something bad had just happened to her, but it passed as he looked on in some wonder as she broke the surface a short distance from where she dove and swam to the other end of the pool and started playing with some other guests in pool games.

While he was glad she was okay, all he could do was glide back into the hotel in a slump with Mavis and Johnny watching him quietly.

Over the next three days, Dracula tried to talk to Elona again, but she just brushed him off or avoided him by staying locked in her hotel room, hoping he got the hint she didn't want to see him. While this frustrated him to nearly no end, part of him understood she needed a little space right now to cool off, just like Martha did sometimes when she thought when he got too over bearing or over controlling at times. But he just couldn't help it, it was who he was, and he it made him all the more determined to help her and cure her, and most importantly, no matter what it took or at what price, to make her happy.

Before the end of another week, Elona finally came out of her room and tried to quietly sneak her way through the hotel to the library and have some quiet reading time, as she felt she needed a break from her tablet's selection of downloaded e-books.

She was impressed with the size and scale of the library and wondered about some of the old volumes and books she saw and where exactly Dracula had gotten them. Did he always have them, even before the hotel was built? Or did he have loyal servants that ventured out into the human world every now and then and collect them for this large accumulated collection over the last century plus?

As Elona looked through various titles, mostly old ones and many she had never even heard of, she strangely found an old copy of The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. For some reason this caught her interest, as she realized more and more she hadn't had her old dream in a few months now, which was actually a relief to her, like a weight had been lifted. Maybe this weird old book might give her a bit more insight into it, though she was hardly a strong follower of the father of modern psychology.

She got comfortable on a couch and read the book for a few pages, but soon found it to be some rather dry reading, if still interesting and thought provoking at times. However, its dryness was enough to make her doze off and she didn't really know when she fell asleep.

 _"Go hide," the man told her, his face hidden in shadow, as he tenderly touched her cheek, "I'll take care of this."_

 _"Be safe," she said with sadness and worry._

 _Flames raged and burned all around her as she ran, clutching something tightly and protectively to her chest and had to quickly dodge a piece of burning debris as it nearly fell atop her._

 _She thought she came to a safe place to hide, but she was suddenly surrounded by humanoid silhouettes baring old pitchforks, burning torches, cudgels, pistols, and crossbows._

 _She looked around in fear and found there was no escape, but she had to as a protective instinct coursed through her._

 _She thought she saw an opening, but suddenly she cried out as she felt an agonizing and fatal pain in her chest, like she had been stabbed._

 _The man she loved called out her name, his facial features almost clear and familiar through the raging flames, and everything seemed to slow down as he tried to make his way to her through the fire and she fell as she reached out to him and her baby began to cry._

 _Finally, everything just went pitch black._

"NOOO!" she screamed louder than a wailing Banshee and awoke in a cold sweat and fear filled dread.

She sat straight up and started to hyperventilate, and the next moment Dracula burst through the library doors like a black shadowed rocket with an indigo tale behind him and was beside Elona in a half second.

"Elona, my darl…ehh, I mean, Elona, are you alright?" he asked frantically as he first took her by her shoulders as he kneeled in front of her.

She locked eyes with him as he waited for her to answer, but he saw she was still in a deep shock, which wretched at his heart, yet at the same time relieved she didn't push him away.

She finally broke down and began to cry into his chest as he held her close and just sat beside her. A few short minutes later, she finally calmed down enough and told him about her old dream.

"It seemed different this time," she quietly said tearfully, "So clear and intense, like a suppressed memory trying to come back to the surface. I thought it finally went away, but it didn't. Why won't it stop? Why does it still haunt me?"

Dracula didn't answer but just continued to hold her as he became deep in thought. Finally, he said gently and low,

"If it's really so painful for you, if you'd like, I'll erase it from your mind."

"What?" she breathed with a sniffle.

"I can make that dream go away, use my hypnotizing powers to erase it from your memory."

"I don't know, Drac…"

"It'll be okay, Elona, and if you're worried about your private memories, I promise I won't look at them. Please, trust me, Elona."

Elona was unsure as she thought about it for a long minute as it worried her he might see things she wanted to keep private, things she hasn't told him or anyone. But it was just so tempting, and he only meant well. If he really can do it, maybe she should let him.

"Okay," she said low, "But just the dream, nothing else."

He smiled gently at her as he held her head to look at him straight in the eye and he said soothingly, "Look into my eyes."

They glowed laser red as he looked into her mind and psychically searched for her dream.

 _Fire. Pain. Suffering. Fear. He could sense it all through her eyes, and he saw so much more, and so much was familiar._

 _"Honey?" she breathed worried as she held a little cooing bundle to herself._

 _"Go hide," he told her reassuring and tenderly as he touch her cheek with such love and worry in his sapphire blue eyes, "I'll take care of this."_

 _And they released their hands as she held their baby and went to find a hiding place in their burning home, but she soon found herself surrounded by angered human villagers with torches and pitchforks._

 _"Vampire!" they shouted, "Kill the she-demon!"_

 _She looked around in fear, hoping to find a way out as she held her baby daughter tightly, trying to protect her. She gave a red eyed vampire roar, hoping to scare the humans away, and most were frightened as they backed away. But the next thing she knew, one of them plunged a sharp wooden stake right into her heart, making her cry out in surprised pain._

 _"Martha!" her husband cried in shock as she fell to the ground, reaching out for him._

Dracula gave a heavy shocked gasp as he suddenly broke the psychic connection, he and Elona's eyes locked to each other.

Uncertain what was going on now, Elona asked low with a growing unease, "Drac, are you okay? What's going on? What did you see?"

He just stared at her wide eyed with slow breathing as he said with a low stunned tone, "I suspected…but didn't want to get my hopes up." A strange smile, like he was feeling a growing sense of joy and excitement, formed on his pale face, and made his eyes light up with an inner spark, and it worried Elona as he continued, "I never thought…I hoped…I wanted to believe, and it's true!"

"Dracula, you're scaring me," Elona said with a low worried voice, "What're you talking about?"

She gave a gasp as he grabbed her by the shoulders with a joyful and exuberant smile lighting his face, and it just scared her more as he said with absolute certainty and a growing jubilation,

"You said you were searching for something for so long and not knowing what you were looking for, and you came here, driven by fate or destiny. Don't you see? It was _me_! _I'm_ what you were searching for!"

"Dracula!" she yelled, "Get a grip, you're scaring me, and you're hurting me!"

"It's not a dream, it's a memory! Your last memory of when we were together!" he continued to yell with thrill and exhilaration and Elona just went wide eyed, "I thought it was impossible, but it's true, now I know for certain, you are _her_! You _are_ my beloved Martha, returned to me after so long!"

She pushed his grip off of herself and backed off as she shouted in shock, "What?! You think I'm…!?"

She couldn't bring herself to finish the thought, and just ran quickly out the library and away from Dracula.

He gave a confused look as he stood up and reached out to her as he cried out, "Wait! Where are you going? Martha, come back!"

He chased after her through the hall as blue mist and reformed right in front of her as she ran up one of the lobby's staircases, pleading to her, "Wait, listen! Don't you know what this means? I know much has change and Mavis is grown up now, but we can pick up where we left off!"

She pushed her way past him and shouted, "Get away from me, you obsessive psycho!"

He gave a hurt look as she ran passed him and continued to run through the hotel, taking some stairs just to get to her room. Before she made it to some elevators he appeared again in a billow of violet and blue mist at the side of the hall as he pleaded to her again,

"My love, stop! I know I failed you before, but please forgive me! I can make things right this time!"

She ran passed him fueled by adrenaline as he cried out to her, "Martha, wait! Don't run from me, I'd never hurt you!"

"I'm NOT Martha!" was all she could shout out as she ran to an elevator and rapidly pressed at the up button as Dracula quickly walked his way to her still pleading to her as he insisted,

"But you are! You have to be! Don't you understand, we're meant to be together! I'm your husband, you're my soul mate, my one true love! My one and only _Zing_!"

Elona just pressed hard on the up button until she suddenly fell through the opening doors and pressed hard on another button to get them to close as Dracula got closer and yelling with desperate insistence,

"For the last century, I raised our only daughter and built this sanctuary for monsters like we always dreamed. I did it for you, Martha, I did it all for you, just like I promised!"

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Elona shouted hysterically, "I told you, I'm NOT Martha!"

The doors finally closed just as Dracula was upon her and she backed herself up to the wall of the elevator as it began to ascend.

"Oh, god!" she breathed, "What've I gotten myself into?"

She looked around the small elevator, expecting him to appear from anywhere at any moment now, his continued chasing of her made her feel like she was in some bad horror movie, like Fatal Attraction mixed with a classic Dracula movie with something made by Alfred Hitchcock thrown in, and the very thought made her heart pound like a drum and race ten miles a minute.

The ding she made it to her floor rang, but she was out before the note faded and she ran to her room, for a moment thinking she should just throw herself into the piranha infested lake and let the deadly fish eat her flesh from her bones.

She barely registered she had run passed Isadora, who had to side step to keep from being bowled over as she asked Elona, "Whoa, Miss Parker, what's the rush? Where's the fire?"

"Chasing me," she said frantically, "He's crazy, obsessed with his dead wife, and he thinks I'm her. If that's how he feels, I can't stay here another second."

She gave a gasp of horror as indigo mist billowed up from the floor and coalesced once more into Dracula, smiling hopefully with his arms out stretched as though to embrace her as he said once more with that pleading tone,

"Martha, my Love Bat, it's going to be okay. I'm here for you."

Elona crossed her arms high in front of herself like a shield and squeezed her eyes tightly as she continued to run and yelled,

"NO!"

She expected to hit a solid body and crash into him, but instead felt the cool soft touch of mountain mist as she passed right through Dracula like he was cool Autumn air as he became ethereal blue mist before reforming into himself facing the other way as she ran into her room and slammed the door right in his face as he yelled to her pleadingly one last time,

"Martha, please, don't shut me out! Remember what we meant to each other!"

"I'm NOT MARTHA!" she shouted through the door as she ran to the master bedroom and started to just grab her things and frantically pack them into her suitcase.

But Dracula wouldn't let a locked door stop him as he passed through the cracks as blue mist and found her in the master bedroom and went wide eyed she was packing.

"No! Martha, I beg you, don't leave me! I've been alone for so long," he pleaded in a near hysteria, "I promise you, I can make things right!"

Elona gasped in terror again as he came into the room and just threw herself into the old wardrobe and shouted,

"Stay away from me! I'm NOT Martha! Stop calling me that!"

She sat in a far dark corner of the old wooden closet, hunched down and hugged her legs to herself as her eyes glassed over with growing fearful tears, reserving herself to being trapped inside until she died from thirst and starvation.

"No, no, don't shut me away, please," he begged her as he put his hands on the closed doors, "Please come out, Martha, talk to me. I know I've made mistakes, even after you were gone, but I promise you now like I did then, I will make things right, I'll be there for you, I'll protect you forever. I won't fail you again!"

"Stop it! STOP IT! Leave me alone!" Elona shouted hysterically, barely muffled by the closed door, "How many times do I have to tell you, I'M NOT MARTHA!"

"But you are," he insisted, "You have to be, I saw it in your mind. Why else would you have been drawn to my hotel? Why else wouldn't we have Zinged? We're soul mates who've found each other again, my Beloved Martha. Yes, you're reincarnated as a human, but we can make it work, I can fix it, I know I can."

"No!" she yelled, "You can't! I'm not her! You can't." She began to quietly cry as she said tearfully, "I can't! Oh, god, why do I keep getting myself into these things?"

She buried her face in her knees as her tears flowed and she heard Dracula try to reassure her, "No, no, no, please don't cry. I didn't mean to frighten you. Just tell me what to do, tell me how you can't be Martha when I feel it in my very core you _are._ "

Elona could only cry quietly and was silent for a short while as she thought about what to say, but she was too frightened to say anything.

Finally she said through her tears, "Reincarnated or not, which I very much doubt I am, I'm _not_ Martha. Ever since I lost everything and everyone I knew, I don't know who I am anymore, and I've been so lost and confused about what to do or where to go to see who I am again or who I want to be, but I can't be Martha. Not even for you. It's not fair to anyone, and it never works out. I can't pretend to be something I'm not just to get someone to like me. I tried that for boys in high school and I just got hurt and brushed to the side. I thought things were different with Jason, but I was wrong, and I don't want to go through that again. Reincarnation or not, it's not fair to put me in her place just because I remind you of her, it's not fair to us, it's not fair to her memory. But if that's how you really feel, then maybe I should just leave to keep from being hurt by you, to keep from _hurting you_ , because that's how it'll end up. That's how it always ends up. I can't…we can't be together. We shouldn't be together, I understand that now. I'll always be alone, it's better that way."

Dracula became crestfallen; his head dropped as he slowly backed away and sat down on the side of the bed, thinking about what she just said.

In a way it was all true. After that terrible night, as his home burned to the ground and he left his murdered wife's body to be consumed by the flames just to save their only child, he carried with him the heavy guilt of failing to save her and would have done almost anything to have her back, to try and earn her forgiveness, and he had thought the only way to do that was raise and protect Mavis away from the cruelty and hatred of humankind's persecutions, even scaring her with an intricate ruse years in the making and carefully planned with a fake village and tricking her into believing his outlandish stories of scary humans.

But in the end he learned something more important, that his only daughter's happiness was what really mattered.

Now he had to decided and understand what was really important here, Elona's happiness or simply his own. Yet his gut kept telling him with such a strong yearning she really is Martha, but something also told him at the same time she was a completely different person, and did he Zing with her or an idea? There's something between them, something special and wonderful, of that he's certain and he couldn't bear the thought of her leaving, of him being all alone again.

Gently he asked, "How? How do you think we can't be together? We share something, you can feel it, _I_ can feel it. Why can't we be together, even if you think you're not Martha, which I know you are?"

Elona gave a small sniffle as she was quietly, but then said, "Look at me, I'm a human, and you're an immortal all powerful Vampire. I'll age into a wrinkled old crone some day, and you'll be done having fun with me and I'll just be tossed aside like a boring piece of outdated junk because you've grown bored with me. Besides, you're what, hundreds of years old, and I'm in my thirties? That's a _massive_ age difference, and besides you're a _grandfather_ , too. And what do we really have in common other than arguing, which makes me nothing but a distraction and trouble for you to run your hotel, which you've worked so hard to make a safe and wonderful place. And if you only ever liked me because you think I'm Martha, then you never saw the real me, never gave me a chance or anything. Reincarnation doesn't mean coming back as the same person in a different lifetime again and again, it means the spirits gets renewed and reborn in difference bodies, which means I might have been Martha in a previous lifetime, but this is who I am now, how I was born and lived a different life. Reincarnation means living different lives and learning from the previous ones and each one is different from the last. That's why I'm _not_ Martha, and you have to understand that."

Dracula sat in silence for a long while, having been given much to think about. She had a point about several things, and as much as it hurts and aches his heart to admit, despite what he saw in her mind, she _wasn't_ Martha, no matter how much he might want her to be. But maybe that wasn't a bad thing, as the more he thought about it, the more he realized he and Elona really had Zinged, and while she was a different kind of Zing, that was okay, too, because the more he got to know her, the more deeply he came to care for her, and more importantly came to actually _love_ her. Deeply, completely, and unconditionally. And it grew stronger every day the longer she stayed and the more he got to know her. How hard it hit him when she fell into a coma was the strongest proof of how deep that love had become.

He then heard her say tearfully, "You also just said you can fix me. I don't want to be _fixed_ , not like that and not by you, it's something I have to do by myself. It's just another way of you wanting me to be Martha, but again I tell you I'm not. I just want to be accepted for who I am, I want to find purpose in my life again, do something that makes a difference in the world, or I'll just keep running until I fade into obscurity and end my life by jumping off a cliff just to finally end my pain, or stay in this dark closet until I starve to death."

As he listened to her vent more, Dracula kneeled in front of the wardrobe and lightly put his hands on the door. Strangely, he again could understand what she was going through.

She then said to herself, muffled through the door, "I hate this about myself, being a cry baby. I'm weak, why am I a weak little girl?"

Dracula gave a look at the door, using some Vampire x-ray vision as his eyes glowed negative colors and saw Elona continued to hunch into herself and quietly cry.

He gathered his thoughts and said with some empathy, mixed with a bit of guilt, and strength, "You're right, about many things. You're not Martha, you're _Elona Martha_. I'm sorry, I just got so caught up in the thought, the very real possibility I finally have the woman I love back after so many, many years without her. Maybe part of your spirit was her, but this is who are now, and whom I've come to deeply care for, who I've come to deeply, passionately, maybe even…" His throat went as dry as a desert, why couldn't he say it?

He steeled himself again as he continued, "But you're also wrong, and you're being ridiculous about some things. We have more in common than just arguing, and you're the strongest, kindest, most intelligent, most wonderful, and special woman I've ever met in a long time. Yes, you may age faster than me because you're human, but that doesn't matter right now, and despite being a Vampa, I'm the Vampire equivalent to being in my thirties and will be for a long time because I'm only 539, or will be this October. And maybe I can't fix you, but maybe I can help you, and I want to, because…because that's what friends do. Please, come out and talk to me."

But the door remained closed and a long silence passed for some long minutes, saddening Dracula as he patiently waited for Elona to emerge.

He then got a simple idea as he made his ukulele appear as he sat back on the edge of the bed and began to softly strum it as he sang low and sweetly,

" _Beautiful Elona, please don't hide away/Please know I mean when I say, I am sorry I scared you away/So with me will you stay, and let me take away your pain?/What we share is as bright as the day, and as pure as the rain/And now you're my starry girl, starry girl/Come be my star and moonlight, my starry girl, starry girl."_

The wardrobe door quietly creaked open as Elona peaked out to see Dracula coax her out with his made up serenade for her. He gave a small smile as he slowly set down his ukulele and held out a hand to her, but she just suddenly closed the door again. Dracula gave a hurt look but it passed as he made a red rose with small spider webs in its pedals appear in his hand in indigo mist and slowly kneeled at the wardrobe again as he slowly opened the door. He saw her huddling into herself again, and seemed to tighten or sink into herself as the door opened.

"Please," he said gently as he held the rose and gently stroked her soft brown hair, "I'm sorry about the craziness, I know this is who you are and I want to know you better because there's so much more to you. You once told me there's so much more to you than your condition, but I think you have let it define you, and worse you let your ex-boyfriend win, just like I let my own pain define me for so long and I let humankind's cruelty and persecution win. But everything has changed now, and we can be part of it together. Please, can we start over? I want to help you, as a friend."

Slowly she lifted her buried face from her knees and looked at the rose, which sparkled and gleamed with the little strands of spider webs on it, and Dracula's open hand for her to take. She gingerly took the rose, but felt the slight prick of a thorn so she had to be more careful of holding the rose.

"Are we really friends?" she asked quietly as she lightly sniffed the rose.

Dracula seemed momentarily hesitant as he said with a shy smile, "Yes, and I really, really hope something more, much, much more. So what do you say, can we start over?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment then said quietly, "No, I want to go back to where we left off. You know, back in the library when you where just holding me."

"Okay," he said quietly as she finally took his hand and he guided her out of the wardrobe and gently wrapped her in his cape as he guided her to the living room of the hotel suite and sat them down.

He allowed her to sit in his lap as he cradled her and held her close as he gently began to rock her and hum the Zing Song low and sweetly to her as she laid her head on his shoulder.

For a while they remained this way, just enjoying and finding comfort in each other's company, Elona strangely feeling safe again than she had in a while, her thoughts peaceful as she twiddled the rose in her fingers as she listened to his soothingly humming of a song she didn't know.

For some reason, as her thoughts wandered, she asked quietly with some curiosity, "You used the word _vampa_. What is that, a combination of the words 'vampire' and 'grandpa'?"

"Yes," he laughed, "Finally, somebody gets it."

She laughed low with him, then asked in curiosity again, "How do you do it? Turn into mist? And shapeshift into a bat? Are you able to somehow control your molecular structure and density?"

Dracula gave a raised eyebrow at her questions, not really knowing what to say, but just shrugged as he finally answered,

"I never really thought about it, I've just always been able to do it. I am magical, you know, and learned to use my incredible powers and strength when I finally got my fangs at a young age. I can do other animals besides a bat, though."

"Really?" she asked intrigued, "Like what?"

"Whatever I want," he teased as he stroked her shoulder as he slowly turned into a giant black bear with blood red eyes.

Strangely, while this amazed Elona, she wasn't frightened but smiled in amazement at the bear Dracula as she combed and petted through remarkably soft midnight black fur.

"I've sometimes even teased Wayne about it," he said as he turned into a large black anthropomorphic wolf in a wisp of indigo mist and he hugged her close.

"Can you do a cat? I had a kitty named Sunbeam when I was a kid, until he died at the ripe old age of 15 years right before I moved out to college."

"If you'd like," he said happily as he shifted to a giant black anthropomorphic panther creature, and leaned his head onto hers and softly began to purr, making her giggle.

"Or I can still do a giant bat if I want to," he said as he became a man sized version of his bat form, and rubbed a wet giant nose to her cheek, again making her laugh, and he kissed her.

She returned the kiss as he changed back to his true form and brought her closer as their kissing gradually became more intense and passionate. Dracula even dared deepen the kiss as he penetrated her mouth a bit with his long tongue, and for a moment she returned it. But then, she pulled back and broke the kissing as she said,

"Wait, I can't, please, not yet."

"Of course," he said quietly with a small tone of disappointment.

For a time he just held her again as he rocked her slowly and hummed to her, before he heard her tummy rumble from hunger. Dracula picked up the phone next to the couch and ordered room service for them, healthy nutritious human foods from a list given to him by Dr. Simon, and some healthy monster food for himself and a blood substitute to drink.

When the room service arrived a few minutes later, they continued to enjoy each other's company as they had a nice quiet, yet somehow casually romantic dinner together.

Somewhere in the deepest bowels of Hotel Transylvania, a scorned and outraged Quasimodo, now wearing grubby rags and covered in filth far worse than anything from being a lowly plumber, dumped an old wooden bucket of filthy water down a old pipe drain as he grumbled to himself about how he will still get his revenge and become the new hotel manager.

Now, more than ever he hungered for it.

He then made his way through the tunnels, the same ones Dracula once got lost in trying to get rid of Johnny when he first found the hotel by chance, with nothing but a torch to light the way, and had to go outside nearby to get fresh water from the piranha inhabited lake.

Along the way, he heard a faint squeaking that echoed in the tunnel. He looked around and found a perturbed Esmeralda with her little arms crossed and her expression in a I-told-you-so glare.

"Oh, Esmeralda," Quasimodo sighed with a mix of guilt and relief, "I know I should have listened to you, but this is just a set back for us. I'm glad you haven't really abandoned me."

Taking it as an apology, she skittered up his leg and onto his shoulder as he limped his way to the lake outside.

As he steadily refilled the bucket to finish Glen's revolting sponge bath, there came a heavy nearby thump as something large landed near him, making the hunchback give a startled frightful cry as he saw a giant Bat Demon with red eyes smirking at him.

Quasimodo gathered his wits and realized the giant bat creature was eerily and extremely familiar as he breathed with astonishment,

"Bela, is that you?"

"So," Bela said with a deeper voice and a growing malevolent smile, "Are we gonna do this, or what?"

Quasimodo formed his own malevolent smirk, and both 'partners' began to share an evil laugh.


	17. While She Was Sleeping

While She Was Sleeping

 _More than a month ago…_

Bela just couldn't take it anymore, as he finally made it out of that human infested and insult of monster kind hotel. For a short while he thought about what happened, and how it all came to this and how it was all a waste of time.

It all seemed like it would be _bad_ fun at first, but they did everything Quasimodo's way, and while Bela had little choice because of his small stature, he wanted more action. But he knew it was all over after he got captured by the so-called castle decorating comity.

As Bela had made his way to the next target Quasimodo told him to sabotage, unsurprisingly more stupid electrical and plumbing stuff, he easily made his way through the air vent system, though to him at his current size it felt like a giant endless tunnel full dust, dirt, and cobwebs, where at one time his real size would have made it completely impossible to get through.

As he finally made it to where Quasimodo told him to go and do as much damage to his 'little' malicious heart's content, the next thing Bela knew he had unwittingly sprung a webbed trap set by spider employees as he suddenly became entangled in a several strong webs.

He remembered a thrilling struggle as he was able to break free of some of the strong and flexible threaded nets, he even successfully managed to fight off and injure a few of them as he reveled in the thrill and rush of the fight; a deadly punch here, a backhanded hit there, along with a dangerous swipe of his long deadly claws to leave gouging deep scratches in his persistent captors. But he soon became overwhelmed by their superior numbers as he became entangled again by more webbing and the spiders took him to face Dracula beside a freshly captured Quasimodo as a recorded confession played in the background.

Bela didn't understand all that human technology junk, and just wanted to tear it all apart, destroy it for the shear thrill, but here it would have also been out of pent up frustration from the whole thing with how long the plan took, and just to get Quasimodo to shut up because he had been a fool to boast about his plan like that and not see it was a trap all along.

So after being caught in the act and captured, before that pathetic son of Vlad could dish out a punishment or reprimand on the little Bat Demon, Bela took his chance to escape and put as much distance between himself, his pathetic trollish ally, and that damnable hotel as he could.

For about a week he could only struggle to stay alive in the wilds of the Haunted Forest as he survived mostly on small insects, the blood of rodents, small reptiles, and birds as they were all the easiest to catch. By day he slept in the hollow of a tree in the darkest part of the woods he could find, hanging upside down by his clawed feet, and by night he hunted for the kinds of food he needed just to stay alive. He took some satisfaction in devouring some spiders as he pretended they were the ones who caught him in the first place, and he made a promise to himself once his size was restored, he will take an enormous pleasure in eating the decorating comity soon.

But Bela still yearned for a bigger challenge.

Another week went by and he still skirted by with such a miserly existence, but he came to a quick conclusion; he still wanted sweet revenge and fun chaotic violence.

So over the next week, Bela made his way back to Vlad's cave, his former home, as he determinedly survived the same way for the next eternally long two weeks.

He only found a few fleeting moments of fun along the way, such as one time he swooped down into the faces of unsuspecting and miserable humans on their way to that stupid Dracula's hotel and scaring them just enough out of their wits as they tried to whack him away and they flailed their arms about like idiots; or he passed through a human village not too far from Vlad's cave and did the same trick to a few more humans as he mock threatened to bite them; he even at one point flew into a human family's car and scared them so badly, he made the car swerve into a ditch and crash, but it made him frown the family only got away with some bruises.

It was all enjoyable at first, especially seeing and savoring in those moments the humans' frightened reactions at the small attacking 'vampire bat,' but his pranks got old quickly as he knew they were nowhere near as fun as what he'd been able to do at his full size back in the good old chaotic days, and what he hoped he can soon be able to do again.

Finally after two arduous and exhaustive filled weeks, Bela made it to his destination, a place he thought he'd never see again for the last few months, his former home and lair of the powerful ancient Vampire, Vlad Dracula.

The sinister and deadly looking entrance was far bigger than he remembered, but he flew in completely unnoticed, smirking to himself as he flittered about the shadowed silhouettes of his sleeping former crew members in the vast cathedral like chamber of the cave. He even flittered about for a few seconds around the dozing Vlad's face as the old Vampire quietly snoozed in his stone throne, until he suddenly found himself in the grip of his old master's hand with preternatural speed belying Vlad's true age, and Bela gave a yelp at being squeezed so hard.

Vlad slowly opened his eyes as they glowed an otherworldly icy blue from his shadowed face, waking from his peaceful nap and leaned forward slowly for his face to show in the faint moonlight, the glow only dimming a bit as he gave his former minion a glacial glare and said with an equal glacial tone,

"What are you doing here, Bela? I told you to stay away from me and my family."

The sound of his voice faintly echoed in the chamber, but it was enough to awaken the other Bat Cronies as a few dozen pairs of glowing red eyes opened and faint hisses emanated all around.

Bela just gave a nervous chuckle as he squeaked out, "I did, but I can't stand being small anymore, or even being tossed and chewed on by a bunch of were-mutts. I want to come back, Vlad, please put me back to normal."

Vlad just squeezed a bit tighter and brought Bela to the bridge of his nose, right in his line of sight as they were the only view in each other's eyes, making Vlad's cold blue eyes cross a bit as he growled low to his former lieutenant,

"Why should I? You nearly killed my grandson-in-law, a human, yes, but a good one. And I know what you've been up to the last few weeks, teaming up with that _mashugana_ hunchback runt and causing trouble. I saw that magic recording with the rest of my family and Denisovich and his friend stopped you both, but I came home to make sure none of the rest of your friends tried to help you and cause more trouble. Somehow, I'm not surprised you're back now."

"Gah!" Bela gagged as he tried to breathe through Vlad's tightening grip, "Please, we weren't even a _team_ , as he said, or even _partners_ , I was just his errand boy. Besides, I have nowhere else to go. I'm begging you Vlad, ol' buddy, take me back. I'll pledge my eternal loyalty and obedience to you. I've learned my lesson, won't you take me back?"

Vlad gave a faint grunt as he then went into deep thought, his long gnarled fingers stroked on his long sharp chin as he started squeezing Bela like a rubber toy as though to relieve stress, and he made high squeaky sounds as a squeaky toy and the mini man bat's eyes bulged out and his tongue lopped and hung loosely.

"Hmm," Vlad just hummed low to himself, and he thought about it for a very long and pregnant minute.

Finally he told Bela with a cold sternness, "You'll have a century long probation, but if I so much as _smell_ or read any thought of trouble from you, one strike and it's over for you."

Vlad tossed Bela like a ball across the chamber, making him yelp again as a the same time, red tinted black mist shot forth from Vlad's palm and encompassed Bela, making him spin rapidly like a whirlwind as he grew before Vlad's and the other Bat Cronies' eyes as they gathered around to watch the show.

"Ooohhhhh, Yeeaaahhhh!" Bela yelled loudly as he spun at a dizzying speed, and grew bigger until he was finally back to his full size, flaring and stretching his large formidable wings to their full length the moment his stopped and stood triumphantly in the middle of the throne room, "Now this is what I'm talking about!"

But the next thing he knew, Vlad stood before him in a shadowy flash and grabbed his face, the ancient Vampire's grip smooshing it in to look like a fish face and looked at Bela straight in the eyes as his own icy blue ones glowed a sharp laser red, and Bela felt a sting in his mind.

Vlad released his grip a half second later as Bela groaned and gripped his head, squeezing his eyes shut like he suddenly had a mild headache.

"What did you just do?" he yelled in his restored deeper husky voice.

"Just a bit of a hypnotizing spell to make sure you behave yourself," Vlad said casually to Bela's annoyance as his old master sat back in his throne and crossed his legs with a smug smile.

Bela just growled, then just smirked dismissively, as he said, "Fine, whatever. C'mon, boys, let's fly!"

But none of his former followers joined in as he took to the air for a few moments, instead just stared at him with deep frowns, making him give a confused look and then a grunt.

"Oh, did I forget to mention," Vlad said in his smugness, "you're not going to be leader anymore, that's Carridine's job now."

Bela landed with a hard thump as he stared the mentioned Crony, Bela's former second-in-command, who didn't look any different from any of the others, but gave Bela a clear smug smile of his own.

"So if I'm not leader anymore, and you just put a short leash of mind control on me," Bela growled, "What am I supposed to do for fun around here?"

"Oh, it isn't that short," Vlad said casually again, "You're allowed to go out and fly, hunt, and 'have fun' as you put it, you just can't go too far, about a couple of miles from me, and you're not allowed to even try to harm someone related to me, by blood or marriage, which means Drac and his whole family, especially the human in-laws, are off limits. It's all part of your…" He waved his hand in circles as he thought of an appropriate word "…parole."

Bela just gave another growl of frustration as Vlad continued, "So you can take some of the boys out for a short while, if they want to and Carridine will allow it, but I'll expect you back before dawn."

"Or what?" Bela challenged.

"Let's just say," Vlad said as his face darkened a bit with a smug but sinister smile, "the consequences for you, if you violate your parole will be…severe."

Bela just gave Vlad a frowning glare, but didn't show his growing fear as a chill, and maybe a yellow line, went down his spine. He just grunted again in frustration, and began walking by himself to the cave entrance, Carridine gave a nod to his Crony gang to anyone who wanted to join Bela for a quick hunt.

More than another week went by, and Bela begrudgingly waited for something to happen, anything exciting and give him a chance at revenge at Vlad. But Vlad kept a close watchful eye on the conniving Bat Demon, which made Bela weary of the ancient Vampire. All he could really do was what Vlad's spell allowed him to do, and Bela found himself doing a lot of thinking in his free time, which he hated as he preferred exciting chaotic action.

While he had 'teamed up' with Quasimodo, and mostly did everything his way, the little runt still had some good ideas for getting back at the ones who wronged him, and maybe if Bela convinced his old followers to join him, or even get Carridine to get them to go along with him, he and the runt can still get revenge and some violent chaotic fun.

He just needed to wait for the right time, and can recruit his 'partner' again.

One day, Vlad got a letter from his granddaughter, telling about the human Elona had gone into a coma and hadn't woken up yet, but she was also worried for her father because Dracula had refused to leave Elona's bedside the entire time and Mavis hoped Vlad could help.

So the next night, as an old bat, Vlad flew at a modest if still steadily slow pace back to Hotel Transylvania, taking Bela with him, and Carridine to keep an eye on him.

They finally landed at the long bridge leading to the majestic castle, Vlad changed to his true form again in a puff of red and black mist as they stopped at the front gate and pointed with a long wrinkled finger to the ground as he told his minions sternly,

"Stay here, this is family stuff, and you'll only scare the humans, as funny as that would be."

Carridine gave a nod of compliance as Bela just growled in frustrated reluctance as the Bat Cronies watched Vlad go inside. When the old Vampire was out of sight, Bela smirked sneakily at Carridine as he just gave a raised brow of suspicion.

Inside, Vlad made his way through the lobby as he was soon met by Mavis and Dennis by the elevators, leading him to the hotel infirmary to where Dracula sat at the side of a comatose Elona.

"Where's Johnny?" Vlad asked in the elevator.

"He's been mostly taking care of a lot of hotel business with me, but right now he's talking with Liz," Mavis said.

"Who's Liz?" Vlad asked.

"Elona's older sister in Cashaugo I think, the only one she's kept in touch with since she left home months ago. Johnny's been keeping her updated on Elona's state the past couple of weeks, and she sounds nice enough but he hasn't told me much about her now. I'm just worried about Dad, and I was hoping you could help him out of his slump because he won't leave her, and something strange has been happening to him the last couple of months, you know, and I'm not really sure but it seems to be getting worse because he's been so dismissive and cold, even to me, and he gets riled at the smallest thing, even when the doctor tries to do his job and help Elona, and he gets even more over protective of her, maybe even more than he ever was with me. Sometimes I think it's like he's becoming a different person, and it's scary."

A worried frown came to Vlad and creased his face to deepen the quilting of wrinkles covering his face as he gently places a wrinkled and gnarled blue hand on his granddaughter's slender shoulder.

"From what I know you've told me the last time I was here, he has been very stressed lately, and no doubt he's trying to control his…cravings because of it," Vlad said.

"He's just tired and hungry?" Dennis said, "We should bring him something to cheer him up, Mommy."

"Yes, we should, Honeybat," Mavis said, "But I also think it's because he's worried about Elona, you've seen how much he likes her."

"Yeah, she's nice, and smart, and she looks like Gramma, and she likes Papa," Dennis said, then gave a confused look as he said, "though I just wish I knew why they fight sometimes, and I wish they didn't."

Mavis gave a small smile as she said, "You'll understand when you're older, sweetie bat, but so do I."

"I hope when Miss Elona wakes up she can play with us," Dennis said, "I don't want her to be sad anymore, she looks sad a lot, like I don't want Papa Drac to be sad anymore."

"That's a good idea, Denisovich," Vlad said in agreement, "But let me talk to him first."

"Sure, Grandpa," Mavis said, "I just hope you have better luck than we have, he just doesn't want to listen to me anymore."

"Don't worry, Mavis, if he doesn't I'll spank it into him like a child," Vlad teased as they finally arrived at the infirmary, making his vampkids laugh.

"Papa Drac getting a spanking, I gotta see that," Dennis laughed as Mavis gave some quiet knocks at the door, and slowly opened it.

As they entered, Dracula didn't give any sign or even stir to show he heard them, but just remained still, stoic, and somehow cold being unresponsive as he held Elona's hand and quietly talked to her.

"Dad," Mavis quietly said, "Grandpa Vlad's here. I asked him to come for another visit, and he wants to help, he's here to talk if you need to."

Dracula hardly seemed to notice them, but a tiny movement or what might have been a small sigh showed he was at least aware of them.

Vlad gave a patient look to Mavis and Dennis that told them he'd like to be alone with Dracula and everything will be okay.

"Dennis and I will be right outside if you need us," Mavis quietly said, barely hearing her father say "Okay, Mavy" as she and Dennis left, Vlad quietly and contemplatively watched them leave before looking back at his son and his face seemed to harden and drop a bit as he gave a sympathetic look.

After a rather long minute of tense silence, he finally said,

"You look tired, Drac, I know it couldn't have been easy for you, seeing her like this, but I've been told she's going to be okay. I'm more worried about you, particularly how this might be affecting your control. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, leave me alone," Dracula coldly and quietly sneered.

Vlad gave a stern look as he came closer to Dracula and said, "Son, you need to eat and rest, you can't just sit here and put yourself through this self inflicting punishment, it doesn't help and it just makes your family worry more, and I don't think it's what Elona would want."

But Dracula just gave a sigh of frustration as he just said low and dismissively cold to his father, "No, you don't understand, none of you understand. I failed her, like with Martha before, and I promised I'd never do that again. She needs me, she needs to know I'm here for her."

"I'm sure she knows," Vlad said calmly and with sympathy, "And I'm sure she appreciates it, but I don't think she'd want you to torment yourself like this. I sense even now you're struggling, you must be really famished. Why don't you let Mavis and the hotel doctor look after her for a while and we go hunting together, like when you were younger, spend a little time together before we lost touch centuries ago."

"No thanks, Dad," he refused with a slight hiss, making Vlad give a slight scowl of annoyance at his son.

"Son, I know you just want to help her, we all do, but it doesn't help to put yourself through this struggle by ignoring your family and friends, or ignoring your own needs, such as food and rest, or hell even the needs of your _mashugana_ hotel, and we all are here to help and support you in this difficult time of need. Mavis told me about how you've been acting, how you've treated her and anyone around Elona the past couple of weeks, and I think you need to go out and feed."

"Never," Dracula hissed, "Leave me alone."

"You need sustenance, Son, and you know where to get it," Vlad lectured further with fatherly wisdom, "Living creatures, and you know it."

But Dracula didn't want to listen and he just seethed more heatedly, "Just leave me alone."

"Drac, I'm asking you nicely, come and spend some time with your old father, your family, she'll be okay. Come spend time with me, we can talk and catch up. We can get you the help and food you need."

Dracula suddenly turned on his father with a rumbling snarl as his eyes suddenly glowed an all consuming crimson and his face became ghostly while and sunken in, he held growing claws in Vlad's line of vision as he seemed to become a little taller and frightening as he yelled with an otherworldly echo into Vlad's face,

"I said LEAVE ME ALONE!"

But Vlad wasn't intimidated in the least, but just irked as he glared at Dracula straight in the eye and nearly yelled accusingly,

"Don't you snarl at me, young man!"

Unsurprisingly, Dracula backed off as he struggled to bring himself under control again and went back to kneeling before Elona's bedside.

"Please, Dad, just leave me alone," he nearly pleaded as he held his face in his palms.

Vlad gave him a look of pity and fatherly worry as he said more calmly, "Son, I know you only want to help your friend, but it doesn't help her if you keep putting yourself through this, you're just hurting yourself and those who care about you more."

"Better me than her," he said low and with a tone of guilt as he tried to push away growing frustrating rage.

Vlad was silent for some long moments, then said with fatherly authority, "Your reaction just now tells me it's worse than I thought, you're losing control, you're forgetting what I taught you."

"I've been trying," Dracula grunted, "But it's getting harder, I don't know why. My supply of blood substitute hardly keeps it satisfied anymore."

"You aren't controlling it," Vlad said with a lecturing tone, "You're _suppressing_ it, which just makes it worse because you've been relying on that substitute junk for too long. You're _fahsnicked_ on it, you need the _real_ thing."

"No," Dracula refused pleadingly as he buried his face in Elona's bed covers, "I don't want to be like that anymore. Yes, back then humans were petty and primitive, and only good for a feeding and stealing their souls. But, ever since Martha came into my life… she showed me a better way, that maybe they weren't too different from us. But then they killed her, and I just wanted to keep my only daughter and all of monster kind safe from human kind's persecutions. But things are different in the 21st century, and the humans are different now. I'm different."

Vlad gave a look of understanding and pity as he told Dracula after a long minute of silence, "I understand that, Son, maybe better than any old Vampire can, but you can't just shut everything else out, you can't deny it forever, you need to feed your growing Hunger, and I'll help teach you how to control it again."

"Thanks, Dad," Dracula said low with some reluctance, "But I just want to be alone with Elona right now, she needs me, she needs to know I'm here 'till the end."

Dracula was silent for a long time as he just sat by Elona's bed side with his back to Vlad.

Finally, with a reluctant defeated sigh Vlad said, "Alright, Drac, I'll come by again tomorrow to see if anything's changed, and maybe we can talk then."

He left the infirmary with a frown, Dracula didn't even say good-bye to him. He then found his granddaughter and great-grandson in the waiting area, Mavis quietly asked,

"Is Dad going to be okay? Was that him I heard roar a few minutes of ago? Did you two have an argument or something?"

Vlad could just looked at Mavis sadly as he said, "I'm afraid it was, but it was just a small one, so not too much of a big deal right now. But I'm sorry, Mavis, he won't listen even to me, his own father."

Mavis' and Dennis' faces dropped with disappointment, but weren't too surprised by what Vlad told them.

"Well, it was worth a try," Mavis said quietly.

"How can we help Papa Drac now?" Dennis asked.

"I don't know, Sweetie, but we'll keep trying. Right now all we can do is be here for him."

Vlad said his good-byes and promised to come again the next night. As he made his way out of the hotel, he saw the two Bat Cronies waiting for him as expected and they all began to make their way home. What Vlad didn't know was that Bela and Carridine had a long 'heart to heart' conversation about their role with Vlad now and the situation with monsters being with humans, and both agreed it wasn't right and something had to be done about it.

Though Carridine wouldn't let Bela out of his sight, even to do a certain kind of private business, Bela had kept a sharp eye out on the hotel and his keen night sight spotted a certain hunchback doing something at the base of the hotel's island and on the banks of the lake.

But before Bela could catch up to Quasimodo, Vlad had come back and said it was time to go. Bela gave a snarl of frustrated disappointment, but knew he had to be patient a little while longer.

That same night, after Vlad and his Cronies left, Dracula had gone out to feed in the forest a few minutes later, while another conversation took place between Johnny and a woman around the other side of the world.

"She still hasn't woken up?" Liz asked with deep worry.

"The doctor says she's stable, and all her vitals are strong," Johnny tried to say with reassurance, though he too was worried, mostly for his Vampire pal and father-in-law.

"Well, I guess it's better than critical," Liz commented with a reserved sigh.

"Yeah, I guess," Johnny said low with sympathy, "But chin up, Liz, something in my gut tells me she'll wake up soon, maybe any day now, and she'll be okay, especially with Drac watching over her in his every waking hour."

"That's more than can be said than any guy that's done anything for her," Liz said with a frustrated and groaning tone.

Johnny asked with a bit of concern and confusion, "Why? What's going on?"

Liz gave a sigh a she said, "Oh, my parents are visiting, and Dad brought Jackass Jason with them, which he knows I don't like because I hate the guy now for how he treated Ellie. I overheard them talking about he's planning to try and get back together with her, but when she wakes up you tell her to stay as far away from that bastard as possible, and make a move on this Drac guy, because he sounds like a great catch or she'll miss out. As much as we all miss her and hope she does come home some day, I've thought for a long time now getting away from here might have been the best thing for her to do, even if she really was just running from her problems."

"Maybe," Johnny said with a sigh of his own, "And sure thing I'll tell her. Gotta go, Liz, I'll talk with you again later, Bye." And Johnny closed his own laptop as he then went to check on hotel business, trying to keep everything in order as Dracula would want and found it to be harder work than he ever expected, given his 'slacker' attitude and usual life style.

In Chicago, Liz closed her laptop as well in her home office as she finally got up to rejoin the rest of her family in the dining room of her two story suburban house, where everyone was gathered together for a nice chat and playing a game of Trivial Pursuit.

"So who were you talking to, Liz?" asked her dad, Stewart Parker, a man of above average height in middle age and near retirement with a bit of a heavy if healthy build, a handsome if aged round face with a strong jaw line, with a few wrinkles such as crow's feet around his walnut brown eyes, graying medium brown hair with a growing bald spot on his scalp, and wearing jeans with a red and white plaid shirt, "Was it Ellie again? I hope she's okay and you at least said hi for us."

Liz could only be hesitant and she remembered her promise to her younger sister about not telling their parents too much about where she was or what she had been doing the last several months, which was easy enough as Elona always kept details about her travels vague as Liz could only guess or suspect what she had been up to. But now, Liz wondered if she should even tell her family the truth, and some of her own suspicions, now that she was told more about Elona's current situation, as well as the friends she had made, especially the guy who might have the hots for her, who he might be and if Elona was shipping with him.

As she looked at her family, the need to tell them the truth as far as she knew was strongly tempting, as they always looked out for each other, even though they were far from perfect but were still tight.

Her husband, two kids, little brother, and her parents all waited to hear what she had to say, but then her eyes fell on the one unwelcomed guest in her home, Elona's ex-boyfriend, Jason Spencer, a tall man with a strong muscular build showing some time in the American military, a handsome face that was the definition of heroic and charming to make most women swoon, with a classic square jaw line and strong cleft chin and high cheek bones, auburn brown hair showing it once had a military buzz cut but now grown out with time, and hazel eyes that showed a hardened soul, but beneath that Liz saw something dark and broken, something more than just PTSD.

She finally resolved to only tell part of what she knew, with a bit of a white lie.

"Actually, it was a new friend of hers, and he told me Ellie's doing okay."

"'He'?" Jason perked up with a sign of jealousy in his voice, which amused Liz.

"Yeah, a nice guy who works at an exclusive hotel somewhere in Eastern Europe," Liz said, "But don't worry, he's more Sean's age and Johnny said he's married."

"Oh, good," Jason said tensely as his jealous tone slowly dimmed.

Liz smile mischievously as she then said, "He's not the guy she told me about she met a while ago, a tall, dark, and handsome type, a hotel manager in fact, can you believe."

Everyone suddenly went silent, and Jason seemed to give a hot glare as he seethed out low, "What?"

After a long minute of silence, Stewart asked, "And who exactly is this 'hotel manger' Elona has met? Where exactly in Eastern Europe did she meet him? And who exactly is this Johnny fellow you mentioned?"

Liz had a feeling she knew where this was going, given how her father emphasized the word _exactly_ , but didn't care and just took up the challenge as she really wanted to mess with Jason.

"Like I said, Johnny's a new friend of hers, and last she told me, Ellie's still at an exclusive hotel somewhere in Romania, the same one Johnny works at, and she never told me who exactly this guy is that she met, but Johnny calls him Drac, or Drake I think. And all she told me about him is that he had black hair, blue eyes, is handsome, pretty tall, gracefully and strongly built, is charming and mysterious, yet funny and sarcastic, and is an old fashioned gentleman type, which is something you don't see much anymore these days."

At the last words she gave a not so subtle hard look at Jason as she saw him try to hide a growing jealousy as his jaw seemed to tighten and he rolled the dice around in his palm as a sweat grew.

"Oh, and this is funny," Liz continued with a bit of a smug smile, "She said his hotel is also his castle, the same exclusive one Johnny works at, so he's a Count, too, high class nobility, can you believe, so he must be loaded."

Again everyone was silent, a silence so thick it could have been cut with a large hunting knife, and it last for a while until Liz's oldest child, her 7-year-old son Daniel Jr., who had jet black hair pulled back into a ponytail, dark brown to near black eyes, and wore shorts with a kid size Chicago Bears shirt said low, "Cool."

Stewart then gave a deep throated chuckle that finally broke the awkward tenseness in the room as he said to Liz,

"You almost had us there, Liz. Maybe Ellie has gotten the rare chance to meet a real European aristocrat on her travels, but one who's also a hotel manager as well, that's highly unlikely, as unlikely as finding the real Loch Ness monster, or Bigfoot, or real Vampires and Werewolves."

"Ooh, that'd be so cool," breathed Daniel Jr, Danny to his family, or DJ to his friends.

"No, it won't," said Alyssa, or Ally, Liz's 5-year-old daughter a sweet little girl with her mother's medium brown hair and dark brown eyes and light olive skin tone, and wore a frilly pink shirt with a white smiling kitten with a red bow on its neck and white shorts, moaned fearfully, "Monsters are mean and scary, they eat people."

"It's okay, little angel," Margret Parker, or Grandma Maggie, Stewart's wife, and Liz and Sean's mother, tried to reassure her youngest grandchild, a sweet older woman with graying chestnut hair in short curls, honey golden brown eyes, and wore a casual light blue v-neck shirt with khaki pants on a pleasantly plump figure, "You're right, monsters are mean, and that's why there's no such things as monsters, they're just scary pretend. But when you're scared, always remember you always have the Lord's love, and your family loves you very much."

"Yes, we do, Mom," Liz said with a bit of a groan as she tried to feign a smile, while Ally just smiled sweetly at her Grandma.

"Oh, I don't know about that," said Daniel Skywolf, Liz's husband, a handsome man with jet black hair and dark brown to near black eyes and healthy build, and a light olive tan complexion that told of a Native American, possibly Cherokee, descent mixed with Caucasian and Japanese-American heritage, "What about all those monsters we've heard about on TV and the internet? Like Frankenstein, or rather his namesake monster, on the Queenie Show and talking about his book Pieces of Me, or that jovial looking Mummy character being a fashion show judge?"

His in-laws gave him judging looks, Maggie's more disturbed than Stewart's frown at him, while Danny looked really interested, but Ally looked worried like she was getting scared at what her Daddy just said. Meanwhile, Jason just gave a smirk that said he thought Daniel was just so stupid and gullible for believing such stuff, but Daniel jut smirked back that he didn't care.

Finally, Stewart said a logical and dismissive tone,

"That's all clearly just some hoax or stunt cooked up by the networks and desperate internet hacks to draw in ratings, or prey on gullible people just to scam them to visit their pathetic websites. You know they'll post anything online these days and say it's all true when in fact 80% of it is all crap, and people will believe it without giving a real second thought to scrutiny or questioning of the source material or objective thinking."

"Maybe," Daniel said, "Though even you can't deny there's always at least a grain of truth to most hoaxes, even in old myths and urban legends, even the most 'monstrous' ones."

He gave a wink to his kids, Danny giggled while Ally looked unsure.

"Perhaps," Stewart said patiently if reserved with lingering doubt, "But in the end, hoaxes are proven to be nothing more than just that, hoaxes, even if it takes years. Besides, the old stories of monsters such as Vampires and Werewolves were later proven to be nothing but the fearful ramblings of the paranoid and superstitious because people back then didn't understand the symptoms of certain kinds of diseases or other things that had perfectly logical and scientific explanations."

"Okay, Dad, we know," groaned Sean, "You don't need to lecture us about science proving or disproving stuff for the umpteen billionth time."

"Sean, hush," Maggie scolded him, "Don't talk to your father like that, you're a grown man."

Sean just frowned at his mom, but Stewart just smiled as he said, "It's okay, dear, he still has a lot of growing up to do."

"Yes, he does," Jason agreed with a smug smile, "If you talked that way to your superiors in the Marines, it would've met immediate disciplinary action for insubordination. Face it, Seanie boy, it's a tough world out there and I had to toughen up to face it, and so do you, but I doubt with being so immature you wouldn't have lasted an hour in cadet boot camp."

Sean's jaw clenched at Jason's condescension as the former Marine just smirked again, as Stewart then said,

"Now, Jason, my son may not have a lot of worldly experience like you, but he's a good boy. However, Sean, you do need to get out there and find yourself a good paying job and stop freeloading off your big sister and her family."

Sean gave a bit of a huff as he nearly growled out, "For your information, Dad, I have an interview for a part time job tomorrow."

"Stop being mean to Uncle Sean," Ally protested with a near whine, "I like him living with us, he's fun, he can always play with me and Danny when Mommy and Daddy can't."

"I'm sorry, Ally," Stewart said with a sweet smile to his granddaughter, "We're just teasing him, but you're right. Besides, we should get back to the game and just enjoy each other's company, even if one of us isn't here anymore."

"Speaking of which," Jason spoke up, "Let's back up a bit, weren't we talking about Ellie in the first place? How did we go from talking about her to monsters and then Sean's lack of experience?"

Before anyone else could speak, Liz got tense and said with some sisterly protectiveness and the same tenseness,

"She has moved on, Jason, and you need to accept that, we all do. After what you did and how you treated her, I don't blame her for leaving."

"I thought Auntie Ellie was coming back someday," Danny said with some disappointment, "You said she took a 'sah-bicycle' and went to see Europe or something."

"It's 'sabbatical', Son," Dan said, "But yes, she still is, and we're all hoping Auntie Ellie will come again so she and Uncle Jason will get together again."

"You're not our uncle," Ally yelled out at Jason, "Mommy said you treated Auntie Ellie bad, and you're a bad guy. I hate you!"

Everyone was taken aback by this, deeply embarrassing Liz and Dan, yet inside Liz couldn't help but smile at this as she saw Jason trying to hold back a yell as he too tensed up, his eyes hardened and his nostrils flared a bit, thinned his lips, and made a fist with one of his hands.

"Kids, why don't you go play outside," Liz told them, "The grown-ups have to talk."

They both gave protesting groans as they left the dining room table, Danny getting a sneaky look on his young face as he looked his baby sister, but his dad caught this and said firmly,

"And no making your sister eat dirt, Daniel Jr., or no online gaming for a week, no tablet, no phone, no computer, and no TV, understand?"

"Ugh, okay, Dad, okay," he groaned, having his fun ruined as he and little Ally went outside, though he wouldn't have really done it, just messed with his baby sister about it.

The rest of the gathered family then sat in more tense silence together, waiting for someone to say something.

"I admit I made mistakes," Jason said tensely, obviously trying to calm down, "But I care about Elona, I loved her, and I still love her. What happened between us was just a simple misunderstanding, and I've done everything I could to get back on my feet since I left the Marines, and now we can face our problems together."

Liz just crossed her arms as her brow furrowed tightly as she said, "That's not how she told it to me. In a nutshell, you were going around sleeping with other women, even streetwalkers, or charming naïve young girls into bed with you and taking advantage of them. And from what I heard those were the very reasons you were _dishonorably_ discharged."

"I don't need to sit here and take that crap from you, bitch!" Jason shouted as he suddenly stood up nearly threateningly over Liz.

Dan stood up as well and shouted back, "Don't you dare yell at my wife that way, Captain Dick wad!"

"And what're you going to do about it, Injun Joe?! Scalp me while you defend your little squaw?!" Jason challenged.

"I just might, you damn Jar-Head!"

"You tell him, Dan!" Sean cheered to his brother-in-law.

"Stay out of this, you little pussy!" Jason yelled at Sean.

This made Maggie gasp deeply as she put a hand on her chest as though she were about to have a heart attack.

"All of you, that's enough!" Stewart shouted the loudest and very gruffly, making the two younger men finally sit back down as he said in a lower but still upset and firm voice, "Jason, you will not be talking to my daughter that way, or her husband, or my son. And Elizabeth, you know very well it hasn't been easy for Jason since his discharge, and he has no other family in the city to turn to, and we're the closest one he has right now, so I want you treat him like that."

Liz just stood up hard as she said with a razor edge, "I can't believe you, Dad! After how he treated Ellie, and what just happened, you're still defending him! Why are you taking his side against your own family, and being so hypocritical by insisting we treat him the same?"

Stewart stood up and said at Liz with his own hard growing tone, "I'm not taking anybody's side, I'm trying to help a fellow Marine adjust to civilian life, and despite his past mistakes you shouldn't hold them against him because he's been trying to make up for them, even his treatment of Elona, and she'll know it once she comes home."

"I very much doubt that," Liz said coldly, "He's the reason why her whole life fell apart."

"Excuse me, I'm right here," Jason said resentfully.

"I know," Liz said with the same cold tone.

"Sweetheart, try to understand," Maggie finally spoke up, "Even the worst of sinners deserve a second chance, all the more so when they embrace the light and love of God. Even more so when we help each other through difficult times and come together as a family."

"Oh, really, Mom?" Liz questioned, "Where was that same 'family togetherness' when Ellie needed it most? She struggled to keep her life on track after she got that damn disease, and all you guys did was alienate her further. Dad trying to keep the peace because you want Spencer here for a son over your own, and you Mom with rubbing in the religious views saying she sinned and deserved it with the whole blame the victim crap!"

"Elizabeth Georgia," Maggie yelled as she rose from her seat, though she tried to calm down, "I never meant it that way, or to hurt her that way, I only wanted Elona to understand that she and Jason were meant to be married now in the eyes of the Lord if they had…consummated their love now. It's the morally right to do, it's what the Good Book tells us is right."

"Oh, please," Liz scoffed, "Does that mean I have to marry every man I was with in my life?"

This made Maggie freeze in place, not knowing what to say.

Liz gave a heavy sigh, seeing there was no reasoning with her parents right now as long as Jason was with them, and it was because of him tensions were now high.

"If this is how you both really feel," she said with a cold tone again, "I think we all need to re-evaluate our priorities, and where our feelings really lie. I've accepted Elona is not coming home any time soon, and most likely never will. Wherever she is, I hope she makes a better life for herself and this Count she met makes her happy."

Silence once again fell over the air around the quarrelling family for some long tense minutes.

Stewart finally made a decision as he said with a low monotone voice, "You're right, Elizabeth. Maybe we all need to cool down before we continue this conversation. Let's take Jason home, Maggie, and then we'll go home."

Stewart, Maggie and Jason all made their way to the front door while Liz, Dan, and Sean all watched them go, Liz gave Jason an ice cold look which he returned in full with an underlying steaming glare.

Maggie then stopped as she told her husband, "I'll catch up in a minute, Stew, I need to talk to Elizabeth for a moment."

While Stewart and Jason left, Maggie turned back to her eldest daughter, who just stood stiffly with her arms crossed as she waited to see what her mother had to say.

"I'm sorry about all that, Honey," she said with true sincerity, "And you're right, Jason had treated poor Ellie harshly. But he has repented for it, and is now trying to walk a better path for it. Maybe some time apart is part of God's plan, and in time she may forgive him as we all must forgive. Don't you think he deserves your forgiveness, too?"

Liz was silence for some moments, then asked her mother, "Let me ask you this, Mom, do you even like Jason, or think he's right in any way for Elona? Because after everything he's done to her, I certainly don't."

"Liz, please understand, Stewart is trying to help him be a better person, just like Ellie tried to help him be a better person, and in the Lord's eyes they are meant to be together now because they have given themselves to each other, even if they unintentionally sinned with unwed sex. But to err is human, to forgive Divine."

Liz just sighed as she shook her head, Maggie's words held no weight for her at all. As much as she criticized her mother's beliefs, sometimes she had a good point on morals and the nature of humanity to believe in a higher power. However, this wasn't one of those times and Liz saw it clearer than her parents right now.

"Mom, this is an old argument, and considering my own past, you know things these days are not that black and white or clean cut anymore. Maybe Jason does want to be a better person, but I don't see that right now, and Dad can't make him change nor change him over night, it has to be his decision. Besides, I still believe Ellie made the right choice to end it with him, and it was her choice to make, just like it was her choice to leave, whether it was right or not. I don't know what God's plan for her is, or even if there is one, but I doubt it's to spend the rest of her life with that bastard shitbag" This made Maggie gasp low "So I think you and Dad should do a bit of soul searching about the difference of what you think is best for your middle child and letting her find her own happiness, just like you had to with me and Dan, and what Sean is. Besides, whoever this hotel manager-slash-Count is she met, he might be a better man for her than Jason. And I don't even care right now if she starts dating an alien king from Planet X, or if he's a googly-eyed sea monster from the Black Lagoon, a unicorn, or hell, even a sparkling Vampire, she deserves better than that man Dad chooses to be friends with. Hell, maybe she'll never find the right man in her life and will still be happy being a single career woman, wherever she puts down roots now. I don't know, we'll just have to see, or we'll never see her again because we cut her out of our lives."

Maggie looked at the floor for some long moments, and while her faith kept her grounded and she always saw as a source of strength, she knew Liz gave her much to think about, but she still know Liz needed to also understand the truth.

"You're right about some of it, Honey, I do just want Ellie to be happy, it's what I want for all my children. It's just never easy seeing you all make some mistakes I fear will ruin your lives and because of them will make people shun you, and give you the wrong reputations. I've prayed every day for her to be safe and well, and I'll continue to pray for her well being and for the day she comes home. And yes, while God has a Divine plan for us all, He did also give us free will, but it's with that free will we must understand what He has destined for us all."

She hugged Liz good-bye as she said, "I'll think about what you said, Liz, dear, but I also hope you give what I and your Dad said some thought, too. Tell the kids we love them and we'll see you again, soon. Good-bye, Darling, and God bless."

Maggie then made her way out the front door and was gone with Liz watching in silence.

Dan then put an arm around his wife and asked, "Do you think they'll ever come around?"

"I don't know," Liz sighed as she leaned her head to his shoulder, "I'm okay with Dad helping that Jackass get comfortable with normal life, at least a little, but it's the insistence of 'being part of the family' and the thought of getting back together with my sister that pisses me off. What does he see in him, anyway?"

"Besides the whole 'he's the son he's always wanted' part, instead of me," Sean said resentfully, "just because I wasn't cut out for the military, or my orientation? Hey, I'm as much a man as that ass wipe, I like using tools and crafting things, I played soccer in school, I play basketball with the kids."

Liz gave a smile as she said, "You're twice, no, _three_ times a man than he is, Sean, and don't let anyone tell you differently. But, yeah, I wish I understood what Dad sees in him."

"I don't know," Liz sighed again, "I do know that what happened to her was preventable though, had they used protection, but they didn't. Maybe it was a spur of the moment thing, I know what that's like."

"Well, let's try to forget about it for now and give everyone a little time to cool down," Dan said reasonably as they all started to gather up the game and put it away.

Liz decided to start an early dinner as Dan called for the kids to come inside, and he told them their guests had left, and while they were okay with not seeing 'Uncle' Jason again, they were sad Grandma and Grandpa had to go.

While the kids watched some streamed old cartoons on TV, Sean and Dan helped Liz with making dinner where Sean then asked,

"So who do you think this Count guy is? Are we sure he's better for Ellie? What do we really know about him, anyway?"

"Other than what Ellie told me about him over Skyping, not much," Liz answered, "But the way she talked about him, she got this look on her face and a kind of sparkle in her eyes that I haven't seen before, other than what you might expect from fairy tales. So who knows, there might be some real there. I've done some searching on Google to find out if I could figure out who this Eastern European Count is, but so far not too many fit his description or what she told me about him, so I'll keep looking. For some reason I'm also glad he's with her since she's…"

Liz suddenly remembered her sister's current condition and her spirits dropped again, making her husband and brother worried, so she told them what was going on.

Dinner was finally ready, and after Danny and Ally were told about Auntie Ellie's state, another heavy silence fell over the family as they just ate in sadness.

"Hey, Johnny told me she'll be okay," Liz said, trying to sound hopeful, "She'll wake up any day now and she'll call when she does."

This made everyone smile and feel better for a little bit, and they all promised to pray for Elona to be okay.

Before Liz finished her meal, her thoughts wandered about the guy who was with her constantly. Elona did describe him as tall, dark, and handsome, with pale skin and deep magical blue eyes, charming and mysterious, yet funny and sarcastic; he lived somewhere in Romania, has a young daughter, is a real Count, and Johnny calls him 'Drac'.

Her suspicions began to rise as she thought about it more and more. Could it really be…?

Nah, that's just ridiculous.


	18. Dream of Longing

Dream of Longing

It was a warm and balmy night, the skies clear and crisp as she witnessed a blanket of radiant stars sparkle and glimmer amongst a wondrous and peaceful night sky whilst surrounding a majestic full moon as its light bathed the long and deserted tropical sandy beach with soft beams of iridescence, painting her view of the glorious landscape from the trees and jungles of the tropical island to the horizon at the edge of the sky and ocean in varying deep colors and shades of blues, indigos, and purplish blacks, giving it all an otherworldly ethereal feel.

As she slowly walked along the beach she allowed her mind to wander as she became lost in awed wonder and at peace with her surroundings, even gave a small child like laugh as she danced about to avoid the small tide of ocean water as it ebbed and flowed to and forth until she finally allow the cool water to tickle her bare feet as she playfully danced at the water's edge. She was alone and at peace here, save for the occasional seagull flying by over head to give faint cries and give a bit of a song to this quiet night.

She found an open spot for her very own on the open beach, and wanting to feel more liberated she removed her pastel colored two piece bikini and set it aside on some nearby rocks as she laid down in the cool sand, giving a sigh of content as she felt the tropical wind caress her now fully bare skin as she closed her eyes to feel more at one in this place as cool ocean water continued to lightly touch her bare feet.

For a short while, she didn't know how long, she just rested in a peaceful meditation as she breathed in the air deeply and just allowed her mind and heavy heart to let go of any and all pain that burdened her soul. Then, silently and unexpected from out of the ether there came a strange and small flittering of something to momentarily disturb the quiet stillness of the starry night, a little ruby eyed black bat with unknown intent and he had spotted the bare human woman relaxing peacefully upon the empty beach. The bat flew silently closer to her, and in a puff of indigo mist it became the black silhouette of a man with a look of craving longing in his faintly glowing red eyes, eyes of a hunger predator.

He glided up to her like a sinister shadow, fangs were bared in growing hungered anticipation, but the Vampire stopped short of the nude human woman before him as he became mesmerized by the very sight of her and his blood thirst was instantly replaced with a different hunger.

She was magnificent, like a sleeping angel from a world eternally forbidden to his own kind as he looked her up and down to drink in every detail of her body. Her skin was bathed in the silvery white glow of the full moon above and it hypnotized him as her flawless peach skin became glimmering opalescence as tiny sparks of faint pastel light twinkled and sparkled upon her skin from tiny crystalline beads of warm perspiration from the humid tropical air as his eyes observed her body's every miniscule detail; her slender and supple muscular shoulders which flowed to long and somehow strong lithe arms; her slender yet shapely hourglass figure with perfect rounded breasts riding perfectly high upon her chest; the sculpted and well toned midriff which flowed down to wide shapely round hips and down to long muscular and strong dancer's legs where he eyed to betwixt laid her most intimate and very essence of her being, where he now longed to feel and merge himself with her in that most ancient and primal of bonds.

He saw her stir from her peaceful rest as she now sensed she wasn't alone, and bright crystalline azure blue eyes met his deeper icy sapphire eyes, and oh how he became further mesmerized by those eyes as they locked in an all consuming and time freezing moment. She just smiled lovingly and seductively at him as he felt a growing hardness within his tightening pants, and his longing for her grew and could no longer be denied.

Slowly and with his own warm and reassuring smile, he kneeled down beside her and embraced her with one long yet muscular arm and brought her close to his still clothed body as he gingerly began to kiss her with growing passion. She returned the kiss with equal growing passion as she wrapped her long arms around his neck and pressed her warm body to his, deepening the kiss as she penetrated his mouth with her hot tongue and pressed her pelvis to his growing bulge as they kneeled together in the soft sand. She once more found herself in his wonderful, loving, and strong embrace, content to remain forever as they are.

What she felt beneath the restrictive clothing excited her, and she showed this to him as she humped him a few times in their continued tongue dancing kiss as one of his hands caressed against her skin and made its way to her nether region, his long fingers slipped up inside to make her gasp in surprise and growing need as a surging wetness increased. She returned the favor as her own strong hands massaged at his still clothed bulge, enticing him as well as he gave a sharp breath at the strength of her touch as it became a growing hardening erection.

He brought her closer to himself as he began to kiss his way down the nape of her neck and to her collarbone, to finally make his way to the deep ravine between her bosoms, his cool lips eagerly exploring every soft curvature and fine detail of her skin as he then began kissing and tasting around her orbs, making her moan with growing arousing pleasure as he then teased her with some light nips of his fangs to then lightly begin suckling at her nipples. His stimulation of her body drove her on as she moaned more in growing arousal, her fingers combed through midnight black tresses as she held a bit more tightly to his head, one hand then going to his neck to unclasp his cape which then momentarily came to life to shimmy an excited dance before laying flat upon the sandy beach for comfort.

Through their continued tongue dancing kissing, they tasted each other more and deeper as she helped him undue his tie, jacket and shirt to finally reveal a lightly sweating and moist muscular chest, where she began her own exploration with her lips and tongue, as his clothing was tossed aside. He moaned in his own growing and burning arousal as she then unzipped his pants he stood up to allow her to help him out of them as she slowly pulled them and kissed her way down his sculpted stomach to his now exposed manhood which proudly shot up to her.

As his pants pooled around his feet, he kicked off his shoes and his pants away as she slowly began kissing along his length as she kneeled beside it, massaging his erection gently but firmly with her hands as she tasted him. She began nipping at his manhood a bit teasingly, making him give a small cry of growing lust as she then took a mouthful of his end into a pleasuring blowjob. For an arduously long minute he tried to hold still and let her taste him, his breathing heavy and sharp as he tried to hold in a lustful cry. Her tasting of him continued until his hot cum leaked into her still open mouth, making her give a small choking cough, but it passed quickly and she continued to taste him and took in more of his dick into her mouth to almost swallow it.

For some reason, he imagined her ex-suitor spying on them from around a pile of nearby rocks, and the despised man just went slack jawed at such a site, being completely unprepared as he was then telekinetically tossed out to the dark shimmering sea by her new and rightful lover.

He couldn't take it anymore, his eyes glowed a sharp red as he gave an animalistic snarl as he grabbed her, making her give a surprised cry as he laid her on his spread out cape and he looked at her with lust filled glowing eyes and gave a wild smirk. He guided her hands to continued to rub and massage him, to pleasure him for more as he tongue kissed her again and began massaging her body, rubbing at her breasts and made his way down her waist with one hand to her wide hip, making her moan in longing and heated desire. His hand then went from her hip to between her thighs as he signaled for her to spread them wide and her legs seemed to of their own accord as the same hand then slipped his long fingers up her pussy, making her give lust filled cries as she humped her hips and teased her with his touch and increased her growing wetness.

Finally, as she seemed to be on the verge of a climactic scream as she gripped his cock and squeezed hard, he silenced her with a deep kiss as his tip finally touched at her nether region and he became fully sheathed within her to the brim, making her moan a bit loudly in a growing desiring lust. He gave his own lust fill moan of completeness as his longing for their bodies to merge was finally complete.

In his mind again the ex-suitor appears, having made it back to the beach to see them merge as she groaned a bit in longing hunger and she initiated the rhythm, making him go slack jawed again and gasp in utter shocked horror and disgust. Before he could do anything about it, he was again tossed out to sea harder and further this time by an unseen supernatural force.

He saw her wince a bit as he sheathed his manhood deeper and deeper and deeper into her cunt, but instinct broke through and she began a steady rhythm with her hips as she gyrated into him and he immediately picked up on it as he pumped his pelvis into her and felt himself harden more, a glorious tightness of such strength clenched around his dick.

He picked up the pace and she synced with him perfectly as she held onto his broad shoulders, their breathing becoming heavy and labored. She wrapped her legs tightly around his butt, showing him she wanted him to go deeper as he wrapped his arms around her and brought her lithe body closer to his as he penetrated her mouth with his long tongue to taste her deeper as their tongues entwined.

She gave moans of ecstasy through their kissing as she hung on tightly to him as he increased the pace more, thrusting into her like a hungry animal.

He gave off a growling purr as his eyes glowed a faint red as he arched his back up, both of them feeling something building to a glorious apex, a feeling of a growing warm sensation that seemed so close and yet so far out of reach.

"Ohhh," she breathed, "Drac, yes! Yes!"

"Ohhh, Rabies," he breathed with a purr, "hhooollly freakin' rrrabies… 'lona! Martha! Ohh, it's been too long! Yes! Yes!"

"Ohh, Drac!" she breathed heavily again as they felt something wonderful coming; closer and closer.

"Drac!" she cried with heavy breath, yet her voice seemed to echo from a fading distance, but she continued to call with more urgency, "Drac! Drac! Drac!"

Her voice now began to strangely take on a more masculine tone and sound all too familiar to him.

Finally she looked at him square in the eye and called out louder with that same familiar male voice,

"Drac, wake up!"

With a light snort, Dracula burst up to find himself in his office, which still looked like a 19th century gentleman's study with a small library, a polished oak desk and plush leather chair, and piles of old parchment and he still used old fashion feather quill pens.

Not remembering how or when he had fallen asleep at his desk, he rubbed his eyes and pulled a piece of parchment stuck to his face as he mumbled something incoherent and found Johnny, Mavis, and Dennis standing in front of him, having tried to coax him awake for who knows how long.

As he rubbed his eyes awake he demanded groggily,

"What?! What is it?"

"We've been trying to wake you up for at least five minutes, Dad," Mavis told him, "We needed to talk to you about the Christmas party, but now I think it can wait, you look exhausted."

He just waved it away as he stood up and stretched his back, making faint pops as tendons realigned muscles contracted then relaxed and he said, "I'm fine, Mavy. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Uhh…," Mavis droned out awkwardly as she and Johnny went wide eyed and Dennis giggled at something.

Dracula could only cock an eyebrow at their awkward stares, finally asking, "What? What're you staring at?"

Johnny just pointed at something, making Dracula look down and see a bulge growing in his pants. Gasping in embarrassment, he quickly pulled his cape tightly around himself to hide it as his face turned a bright pink.

He then walked stiffly from behind his desk as Mavis gave him an amused and snarky look while Dennis asked curiously,

"Why is there a big bump in your pants, Papa Drac?"

Dracula just clenched his jaw, his mind racing for something to say as he blushed a brighter pink. Finally he just said strictly and awkwardly,

"Never mind that, Denisovich. You wanted to talk about the Christmas party."

"Yeah, Drac," Johnny said as he cleared his throat, trying to push away very inappropriate thoughts, "As much as we know you're unsure about the whole thing, we need to get started planning it right away, as you know parties take a lot more than just decorations and awesome foods to eat."

"Yes, yes, Johnny," Dracula said a bit dismissively, "I've planned parties before, what's your point?"

"Well," Johnny continued a bit awkwardly, "not counting our wedding or birthdays, this'll be the first big party at the hotel to invite humans and we wanted to tell some ideas we have."

"Alright, like what?"

"Well," Johnny continued, "A good place to start is theme, and I think we can mix it up a bit with some monster stuff and really make it really awesome, and I was thinking like something from 'A Christmas Carol' 'cause some of it's spooky themes, and mix in a little 'Nightmare Before Christmas.' Awesome, right, Drac?"

Dracula could only give a puzzled look with a raised eyebrow, not really sure what Johnny was talking about, though he did have a small idea of what A Christmas Carol was.

"Well, whatever we plan, Johnny," he began to say with a smile, "I'm sure it'll be sexful…I-I mean, eh, erm, _successful_."

He blushed bright pink again as his family stood in front of him and stared awkwardly for a long minute as they tried to hold back snickers.

Dracula gave them a stone faced frown as he blushed, as he strangely felt hot and tingly inside, and he felt himself harden a bit and swell.

That dream had to be more intense, and felt more real than he thought.

He finally suggested with a bit of a toneless drone in his voice, "Let's discuss it more on the way to the Ballroom, and tell me more this 'Nightmare Before Christmas.'"

At the same moment Dracula had been coaxed awake by his family, in her suite Elona awoke with a start from a similar dream. This one more intimate and far more realistic than the last one she vaguely remembered having, and it scared her.

Looking around the master bedroom reassured her where she really was, but then she felt at her covers and the sheets to find them soaking wet. Elona became a bit worried, but knew or suspected what it meant.

Getting out of bed with a stiffness in her body, she made her way to one of the spare bedrooms to go back to sleep, though her mind continued to reel and be occupied by the dream.

As she laid into the new bed and tried to get comfortable, she mumbled with sadness and resolve to herself,

"Never again. Never, never again."


	19. Discussions and Agendas

Discussions and Agendas

In a murky, damp, and rotten smelling cave beneath the lowest bowels of the hotel, a recently restored Bat Crony and two of his comrades spoke with a certain unsavory hunchback in secret.

"So you see I can't go anywhere farther than a couple of miles from wherever Vlad is, and so far only these two losers are willing to go along with anything," Bela told Quasimodo with an obvious complaining and frustrated tone while the other two Cronies, Carridine and Jiangshi gave unhappy looks.

"But you're here now, Bela," Quasimodo said with a smirk, "Which means Vlad is here now, and we can still plan our revenge."

Bela just gave a frown and huffed out sarcastically, "Hmph, well aren't you so observant of the obvious, but I see you've been demoted even further and are even worse off than you were before. And I don't really give a stinkin' rat's ass about Vlad's pathetic little 'family visits.'" He did the quoting gesture with his claws.

Esmeralda gave Bela an offended and angered look at the words 'rat's ass', still harboring feelings of enmity towards her friend's so-called ally and still certain the Bat Demon will only make things worse for them all.

Quasimodo glared at Bela as he retorted back, "Well, you may be big again but you are clearly not leader of your gang of over grown flying rodents again, so we both have long ways to go."

Bela lost his smirk as he grunted at Quasimodo while Carridine and Jiangshi didn't even try to hide their smug snickering.

Bela just crossed his arms as he gave a sulking frown and said, "The same spell that keeps me from getting too far from Vlad also keeps me from going after and having some fun with his so-called family, especially the _humans."_

The last word he spit out with a disgusted snarl like his favorite hobby had been forever banned to him and his very purpose in life was out of reach, or even his entire existence had no meaning. The other two fellow Cronies grunted in agreement.

Though Quasimodo shared the distaste for humans with Bela to a strong degree, he didn't see how his predicament was worse than his own, and so had little or no sympathy for the cursed Bat Demon.

"Still," Carridine jumped in, "Bela is right about the whole thing. Vlad's gone soft and the whole monsters being with humans thing is wrong for the right reasons. I'm with Bela on getting things back to the way they were before, but I want to know how to convince Vlad."

"Pfft, forget Vlad," Jiangshi scoffed, "I'm with Bela for getting back to basic chaos. A few of the others miss the good ol' days too, but they're too cowardly right now and they need more convincing."

"Ze point is," Quasimodo spoke up again, "If we can still get revenge on Dracula and Vlad, we must change tactics, and to do that we can't go after his precious daughter or any of his pathetic and vile human relatives. So one loophole I see is we can go after zat pathetic and miserable human woman he is so infatuated with. And while perhaps _you_ can't go after Dracula's human relatives, Bela, your friends here _can_."

Bela and Jiangshi smirked and rubbed their clawed hands together sneakily at Quasimodo's suggestion, and while Carridine also found it to be a tempting idea, he waved it away as he said with clear refusal,

"No way, I'm not gonna risk Vlad's wrath any time soon. As much as I miss the glory of chaotic fun, I'm not risking my neck or the others and get on Vlad's bad side. Shrinking Bela was a mercy, even a little slap on the wrist compared to what else he can do if he's mad enough."

"And that's why I question why he made you leader, Carridine," snarled Jiangshi, "You're nothing but a weak coward that'll bend to Vlad's every whim like an obedient lap dog. At least when Bela was leader he didn't take things lying down."

Carridine snarled in anger at Jiangshi's insult and it was returned with pleasure as Jiangshi smirked smugly, but Bela separated them as he yelled, "Knock it off, you two, we're not here to fight each other but to get revenge and get things back to how they're supposed to be."

Quasimodo just frowned with a growing frustration, then gave another sinister smirk as he reminded them,

"Then like I've said, we don't go after ze family, but other humans, especially the guests and that one particular human woman he's so fond of."

All three Bat Cronies gave sneering smiles and evilly amused grins at this, seeing what Quasimodo was suggesting. But Quasimodo then lost his smirk as he remembered an intriguing if rather disturbing detail.

"Of course, my friends," he said, "we may need to be cautious for a time as _Monsieur_ Dracula's behavior of late has been of concern. Remember in the Lounge how he acted after his daughter was insulted, Bela? While I don't mind it being another way to scare off the humans, I would not want to provoke him into such a mood for now."

"Ah, don't worry about it, short stack," Bela said dismissively with a wave of his claws, "I've seen that before, it's just a Vampire temper tantrum, nothing to worry about."

The Bat Cronies laughed about it in their ignorance, but Quasimodo still wasn't so sure. Still he will cross that bridge later, and joined in the laughing.

* * *

While Bela and the Bat Cronies secretly met with Quasimodo, Vlad was with Dracula in his office sitting across from him as his son worked on overdue piles of paperwork and Vlad could see how weary Dracula was becoming which further deeply worried him as a father.

"What…what the bat hell is this supposed to mean?" Dracula mumbled to himself in confusion and growing frustration as he wrote something down for his hotel records, "Humans and their paper money and credit cards and all that internet stuff like pal to pay thing, they're so weird these days. Why do they have to make things so complicated? Whatever happened to good old gold and silver coins, or something?"

He set his quill pen back in an ink jar and rubbed at his temples as he squeezed his tired eyes shut, exhaustion slowly creeping upon and catching up to him.

"You look exhausted, Drac," Vlad said with a somewhat snarky tone.

"Tell me something I don't know, Dad," Dracula sarcastically snarked back at Vlad, "I really thought I'd be done with this crap by now, but this really isn't a good time for a chat."

"I think it is," Vlad said, "So why don't you take a break from whatever dry and boring paperwork you're doing and visit with me, like we planned today. Besides, with all the _mashugana_ mischief and stuff that happened I know it's stressed you out big time, which worries me that it's affected your control. I just want to help you learn it again."

"No thanks, Dad," Dracula sighed with some annoyance at his elderly father, "I've got it under control now, I don't need another lesson like I'm a kid again."

"I think you do," Vlad lectured, "And it makes me wonder if Mavis or even Denisovich will soon lose control as well. What will you do if one of them follows your example? Even if it's unintentional, without a strong enough control over their Hunger they'll harm a lot if not all of your human guests. I admit, part of why I don't visit as often as I'd like to isn't just I'm still getting used to the idea of humans and other monsters getting along like all is hunky dory and full of moonbeams and daisies, but it's also because for me I get that craving in small doses. But I'm old, and have a better control over my urges." His voice lowered as he then mumbled, "Besides the fact I'm also hemoglobin from humans intolerant at my age, so I've had to feed on animals."

Dracula just looked at him with a bit of an unconvinced blank frown and stare as Vlad continued, "So you see, son, if you completely lose control to your Hunger, this place becomes a living buffet to you and not a happy laffy resort with monsters and humans all best friends."

"I know that, Dad," Dracula grunted with frustration, "Stop lecturing me about it, I don't want to talk about it. Besides, I doubt Mavis will lose control to rage because I taught her at a young age, and she's too much like Martha because of her kind heart. And Denisovich is half human, so I doubt he'll ever have a strong craving or he even has the Hunger to begin with."

He tried to get back to work as Vlad just gave him a stone faced look of doubt, but decided for now to hold off on the subject.

"Fine, Drac," he said, "But you know you'll have to deal with this problem sooner or later, and I say don't be a schmuk about it and deal with it sooner."

Dracula gave a bit of growl as he looked at his father and said with a bit of a hard tone, "I have been, Dad. Remember when Elona was in her coma and you came to check on me? Right after you left, it got so agonizing to keep under control I left and fed on a bunch of animals in the woods. Ever since then, when I feel the urge I go out into the forest to feed, so you shouldn't have to worry about me losing control."

Part of Dracula thought maybe he should tell Vlad about almost feeding on a human for the first time in many, many years or that same urge to feed on ones that just plain irritated him. On the inside it made his spine shiver and disgusted him enough to make his stomach churn in sickness and maybe even vomit; so he kept it to himself for now.

"Fine, son," Vlad said with some dismissive doubt and a shrug, and then his thin lips curved up into a wily smile as he asked casually, "So, speaking of Elona, how has she been? How are things between you, anyways?"

Dracula seemed to freeze in hesitation, not entirely sure what to say to this right out of the blue question.

"Fine, Dad," he said in a low and near toneless voice.

Vlad again gave a doubtful and concerned look as he asked, "Why? What's wrong, Drac? Is she okay?"

"Yes, she's fine," he sighed with an annoyed grunt.

Vlad gave a raised wispy eyebrow as he pried a bit more, "Drac, what's going on? What did you do?"

Dracula's cheeks flushed a bit as he remembered the intense and erotic dream he had a few days ago, making him cross his legs behind his desk as he nervously and embarrassingly wiggled in his chair.

"Nothing," he said with a bit of a squeak as he loosened his shirt collar a bit as he suddenly felt very hot and flushed.

Vlad just gave an unconvinced frown at his son, making Dracula give a defeated sigh as he told him about what happened the past week, sans the dream he had.

Vlad became positively perplexed and fascinated all at once as it sank in.

After a long minute or two he finally breathed out, "So, she really is Martha's reincarnation?"

"Maybe," Dracula admitted, "But we haven't talked about it much since I practically scared her off that day. She said she needed some alone time to think about it, sort out her feelings and other womany stuff like that. The truth is even I don't know where we stand on it entirely."

Dracula's shoulders seemed to slump as he thought about how lonely the last few days without even talking to Elona had been. One reason he had tried to keep busy with hotel business and paperwork was to keep from even thinking about her and how difficult the whole thing seemed.

Vlad again just gave a patient look to his son as he made a steeple with his long blue fingers.

After another long minute waiting for Dracula to continue, he finally asked, "So, when are you two going to talk about it?"

"When she's ready to talk again," he mumbled with some irritation.

Vlad just seemed to shrug and said rather blatantly, "Never thought you'd be one to be so skittish around a mere human, especially a woman."

"What!?" Dracula snapped defensively as he stood up hard from his chair.

"Hey, cool it, son," Vlad tried to reason as he held up his hands, "I just needed to get a reaction from you. The truth is I understand some of what you might be going through."

Dracula slowly sat back down as he said low, "You do?"

"Sure, it's what happens when you're in love, a lot of high anxiety, you know."

Dracula blushed in awkwardness as he pondered this for a moment, then said with some puzzlement and a bit of denial, "Sure, I guess that's a little true. But, whoever said I was in love, and don't you have a problem with me and her because she's…?"

Vlad seemed to give this some thought for a long moment as he looked at Dracula straight in the eye. After what seemed like a long tense minute, the elder Vampire finally said,

"Perhaps at one time, I would have disowned you. However, I know you well enough how stubborn and pig headed you can be once you've made up your mind about something. That's one thing that hasn't changed about you since we lost touch centuries ago. I guess you get it from me, because ever since Denisovich's party I had to rethink a lot of things, and it hasn't been easy for me. But that's beside the point. However, I am saying like with everything else I'll need to get used to it, and I'm skeptical of the whole thing. But, no, I don't really have a problem with you being with someone again, Drac, if she's someone who can make you happy. I think you're the one with the problem."

"Excuse me?" Dracula growled at Vlad.

"You know what I mean," Vlad smirked as he waved a finger at Dracula, "You two avoiding each other over some ridiculous misunderstanding, when what you should be doing is working through it. And hopefully, as you work through it you won't neglect to work on your control because you can't afford any distractions."

"Yeah, yeah, stop lecturing me about it, Dad" Dracula groaned.

Vlad just gave a sigh, getting a bit frustrated and annoyed with his son's stubbornness.

An awkward silence passed between them as neither said anything for a long minute.

Finally, Dracula asked Vlad, "What does that have to do with me and Elona, anyway?"

Vlad just seemed to give a blank but stone cold stare at his son, as though the answer should be obvious.

He just said low and with a cold tone, "You should know that already, considering what happened centuries ago. I supposed it's partly my fault because I was so hell bent on Vampiric tradition, and I now see it's what drove you away all those centuries ago."

"A lot of things _drove_ me away," Dracula mumbled, "What you did to Lulu when I was a kid, pushing me to carry on the family tradition, especially the whole war thing, and _she_ was always the favorite."

Vlad narrowed his eyes a bit, hurt growing within him, but he couldn't really blame Dracula for feeling so bitter as it was only so recent they had finally reconciled.

"We'll talk about all that later," Vlad stated with strict fatherliness, "I want to know more about you and Miss Parker."

He gave a teasing smile as he saw Dracula blush again and his eyes shifted all around, trying not to look his father directly in the eye.

"We, uh…," he moaned out awkwardly, "We're fine, like I said."

"What else?" Vlad asked, "What do you like to do together? I'm sure it isn't easy finding something to do things together, considering she's a human."

Dracula gave Vlad a stone faced frown at this remark, but Vlad just smirked as he said, "Well?"

Dracula just fidgeted in his chair again as he tried to think of something to say as stammered again, "We, uh…I mean she and me…we…"

Vlad lost his smirk as he breathed out, "You mean you haven't done anything yet?"

"Sure we have," Dracula said defensively, "We've sung some karaoke one time. And we, uh…talk."

"But you haven't really courted her have you," Vlad said dryly.

Dracula remained silent as Vlad just asked dryly, "What do you talk about anyway?"

"Stuff," Dracula said with his own dry tone, but Vlad just stared at him, so he continued in a low and uncertain voice, "Mostly how we both know how lonely we have been in life and how painful it can be."

Vlad's face seemed to drop a little and his heart ached a little, keeping silent he actually understood that better than even Dracula knew. He just said low, "And?"

Dracula rubbed at his neck as he tried to think of something else to say, but his brain was blanking.

"Other stuff," he choked a bit, "She likes to learn stuff, and can be a little philosophical, so she's really smart, and under that I see a lot of passion…"

"What about that time in the sauna?" Vlad suddenly asked cheekily.

Dracula's gaze narrowed at his father as his cheeks flushed bright red, again he wiggled in his chair as he crossed his legs as he said through gritted teeth,

"I don't know what you mean…"

There then came a sudden loud knocking at his wooden office door, to which Dracula was mentally thankful and relieved for.

"Come in," he yelled louder than intended, and the door open with a loud click as Isadora entered a bit meekly, but with dignity and determination on her broom as she held a package and a few envelopes in one arm.

"The package and mail you were expecting, Your Eminence," she said courteously as she gave a curtsy to her master.

"Thank you, Isadora. You may go," Dracula instructed as he took the delivered mail from her, and she gave him her ever entranced googly eyed look as she left.

But instead of heading out the door, her broom hit the wall hard and she hit the wall with a hard bodily thump with her arms and legs spread, making the two Vampires stare at her.

Isadora just pulled herself from the wall, tried to straighten out her maid's uniform as she brushed herself off and awkwardly laughed as she left through the door.

After the door closed again, Vlad gave a raised eyebrow to Dracula but the younger Vampire just shrugged.

"I'm used to it," he said dryly.

Vlad just shrugged as he asked, "What's all that?"

"Some stuff I need to help me plan the Christmas party."

"Mm," Vlad just groaned, making Dracula give him a look.

Dracula gave a raised eyebrow to Vlad as he said, "I know what you're thinking, but it's very important I get this done. Planning this party means a lot to Mavis and Jonathan, and even Elona thinks it's a good idea for improving things between humans and monsters."

Vlad tapped his fingers together for a moment, as though in thought as he said, "I'm not entirely against an admirable idea, Drac, but I am skeptical of the whole thing."

"Why?" Dracula questioned.

"Things don't just change overnight, believe me I know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Dad" Dracula groaned, "It took more than a century for humans to go from fearing me and my family and friends, with their torches and pitchforks, to dressing like up like us and almost practically fan worshipping us. It's the weirdest thing, I know, but if this party goes off without a hitch then there's nothing to worry about. And if it means anything, you're invited."

Vlad just shrugged about it as he got up from his chair and headed for the door.

"Where're you going, Dad?"

"Since you're nowhere near finished with whatever work you're doing," Vlad said, "I'm going to go visit with my great-vampson. But before I go, I highly suggest, maybe even urge you to go beyond just 'talking' with Elona, who you're so smitten with. Actually start courting her like a real gentleman, take her to an opera or on a hunt, or whatever it is your generation does these days. Whatever, just be a Vampire."

Dracula was about to say something, but Vlad interrupted him as he continued with a rather cheeky tone, "Of course, if you're too afraid to show her you have fangs, I could show her mine."

Dracula only froze in his chair, not sure how to respond to that.

"Do you want me to talk to her?" Vlad asked.

"No!" Dracula snapped nervously, making Vlad go a bit wide eyed, but he took a deep breath and tried to say more calmly, "No, thank you, Dad. I'll talk to her. But when she's ready, or after I'm done with work, whichever comes first. I'll see you later."

"Okay, son, I really hope we can visit more soon," Vlad said with a fatherly tone, but he became more cold and series as he said in a low voice, "But remember what I keep reminding you. Control."

He closed the door with a low click, leaving Dracula alone in his office to contemplate what his father just said. But for now, he pushed his thoughts, and his exhaustion aside as he set to working on details for the Holiday party.

* * *

At the same time Vlad and Dracula talked in his office, in the hotel's new coffee outlet, Starbats, a silent and maybe pensive Elona sat silently in a private corner booth with friends. Or rather those she wants to consider friends, yet hardly knew them at all despite how long she had stayed at the hotel so far.

She just took another sip of her Witch Hazelnut Mocha as the female monsters Eunice, Wanda, Carrol, and Nefi watched her. They had invited her to finally spent some quality 'girl time' together, even if it took a bit of convincing as she was reluctant to do anything but wanted go out and have some fun.

So now the girls sat together in the enjoyment of company, though they could clearly see something was weighing heavily on Elona's mind.

"So, Elona," Eunice said, "You've been at the hotel a while, how are you enjoying your stay?"

This brought Elona out of her deep thinking as she said, "Hm? Oh, uh, fine, Eunice. Actually, it's funny, but in all the time I've been traveling, this is the longest I've stayed anywhere, two months, almost three maybe. Strange, I never thought I'd wind up in a place like this."

"We understand why you felt you had to leave and go from place to place for months, dearie," Wanda reassured her with a motherly tone, then took a sip of her Dark Moon Roast coffee, "But that doesn't matter anymore, you should be happy you've finally found a place to settle down."

"But that's the thing," Elona said with some doubt, "I don't know if can stay here. Not because I haven't liked it here, it's really amazing. A little more weird than I'd like sometimes for my tastes, but still amazing."

"Then what's the problem?" Carrol asked, who was enjoying an Ectoplasmic Espresso.

Elona took a deep sigh as she thought about how to answer, having wondered about how to talk about this with someone besides Dracula.

Finally she spewed out quicker than she intended before she could hesitate anymore, "Drac thinks I'm Martha's reincarnation."

"What?" Wanda gasped out with some surprise as this sunk in, along with some lower gasps by the others.

The other ladies just stared at Elona as she nervously waited for one of them to say something, but they just stared at her to continue.

"I honestly don't know what to think of that, or what to do," Elona said low, "And that's another problem I've been thinking about, what to do with my life. I guess the long and short of it is since I left home and just kept going without looking back, I never thought about stopping or where I would end up after I ran out my grandpa's inheritance money to me. And now I've met a terrific guy and some really great people, and I don't want to lose that. But I feel like my life is lacking something still, some real purpose I can be proud and passionate about, you know?"

"Well, that shouldn't be so hard to figure out," Eunice said with a smile as she sipped at her Corpse Chai Tea, "I'm sure Drac wouldn't mind giving you a job at the hotel if you want one. I'll bet he'd just plotz over it."

The other ladies agreed with happy smiles, and while Elona had no doubt of that she said with a rather somber tone, "But that's part of the bigger problem. I don't know if I should ask him, because I'm conflicted about staying because I've come to really like it here and I want to be with him, but would he see me as me, or a fill in for Martha because he thinks I'm her reincarnation?"

The girls all gave understanding and empathetic looks to her, and even looks to each other to see who would say something.

Finally, Nefi spoke up, "In my homeland, my people were taught the _ka_ , or similar to what is called the soul today, passed on into the Afterlife at death and needed to be sustained through food and drink. Of course, it was only the _ka_ of the high Pharaohs who could join the gods. Also, if the tombs of my royal family were disturbed by those with ill intent, there were dire consequences such as the power of curses if need be. "

Elona gave Nefi a bit of a raise eyebrow, and asked what she hoped wasn't an offensive or prying question,

"Uh, yes, I remember learning about such a wonderful belief in school, but what about you, or even Murray for that matter?"

Nefi just gave an amused smile as she took a sip of her Mummy Macchiato and just said, "There have been occasional exceptions to the rule such as myself and Murray."

"And what's the real deal with you and him, anyway?" Elona asked with a teasing smirk.

"Oh, no," Carrol jumped in, "As much as I'd love to talk about Nefi and Murray's on again/off again thing, we're talking about you, Elona. Now you tell us, are you really Martha's reincarnation?"

"Carrol," Eunice nearly snapped at her friend, but the Invisible Woman just shrugged as Elona just went silent with discomfort and almost pensive again.

"My mom was very religious," she said low, "I guess because she came from a very religious and conservative family. They were taught that if you lived a good and virtuous life, after you died your soul went to Heaven. But my dad was more of the scientist and had his skepticism about what was taught in most religions, but he taught me and my brother and sister to always keep an opened mind and always said just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there and the universe has a spirit that we're all a part of. So, I took a class to learn about world religions in school and there are some that believe in reincarnation which I found fascinating. Yet, I never really considered the belief for myself and I'm not sure if I want to."

"So where did Drac get the idea you're Martha's reincarnation?" Wanda asked.

Elona was hesitant to say anything again, but she mustered up some courage and told them what happened last week, which also included a rather long story about the dream she has had all her life.

Her monster friends could only be stunned in silence as this sank in, until Elona finally said, "Remember how we first met? Eunice and Wanda said I looked like and reminded them of a friend of theirs."

They nodded; Eunice and Wanda had looks of sadness on their faces.

After another long minute of silence, Elona finally said, "So now you know my dilemma, why I feel so conflicted about leaving or not. But, like I said to Drac, I doubt I'm Martha's reincarnation, but even if I am I'm not her; I'm me and I want to be accepted for who I am."

Again, her new friends gave some nods as Eunice patted Elona on the shoulder and smiled as she said, "Well, we do, honey. It's you we met and it's you we're gonna get to know. So we'll talk about this Drac problem later. Let's talk about something else, something more interesting."

"I agree," Nefi said, "I am most curious about your travels before arriving to the hotel."

"Yeah," Carrol said, "Or how about telling us about your life, what you did, or about where you're from, and hopefully without talking about that jerk again. Or go ahead and trash him, I'm fine with that."

The ladies laughed, even Elona as she began to feel a strange sense of normalcy she hadn't felt in a long time.

Giving a smile she searched through her memories to talk about happier times, especially all her friends back home.

For a moment she felt a pinch of guilt in her heart that she hadn't talked to any of them in the whole time she had traveled throughout Europe, but she made a mental note to herself to have Liz get in touch with some of them and hopefully get in touch again.

She smiled as she began to say, "Well, you know I'm from Chicago in the U. S. and I worked at a museum, the Museum of Science and Industry in fact. I started out as a volunteer at a nature park and then an art museum in high school and eventually worked my way up to being a clerical assistant and finally an assistant Archivist for most of my adult life. The work could be boring and tedious sometimes, but what I learned about and getting to meet and work with some great people in so many different fields of science and learning. It was the best time of my life, and I had such big dreams of working the Field Museum, even after I met…"

She went silent as she came close again to talking about her ex, making her new friends look at her in expectation as her stomach churned with hurt anger and grief again.

She took a deep breath as she said to herself with some resentment in her voice, "Oh, screw it, I have to let it go. I have to stop feeling sorry for myself and playing the 'oh pity her because she has HIV' bit. I'm sick of it."

"Then let's talk about something else," Wanda suggested, "Like what were some things you liked to do back home when you weren't working? My husband is a data processor as well as the hotel's tennis instructor, although that's more of a healthy hobby than a job, despite his bad habit."

The girls, except for Elona, laughed at this but she gave a polite smile.

"Well, you know I love to sing. I was in school choirs in middle and high school and they could be a lot of fun, though not all the songs were to my tastes, but that doesn't matter right now. Every Saturday night, my friends and I got together to go to karaoke and just hang out. I also liked to draw and sketch in my quieter times, and even write short stories and poetry when the inspiration struck me."

"Really?" breathed Eunice with a growing smile, "So did Martha."

"Uh, tell us more about your old friends back home," Wanda quickly suggested.

Elona was momentarily confused but just shrugged it off as she said with a smile, "Well, I've lost touch with some friends from school and college, it happens I guess, but there were some I was always tight with. My best friend was Kelly and we'd known each other since we were little girls when our grandparents were neighbors and we finally attended middle school together. I was the geeky and artistic one while she was more the athletic one, and was on the school track teams. She's a police woman now, and while she says the job is stressful, I'm glad she hasn't lost her optimism in life. I used to be more optimistic."

She went quiet again, making the monster ladies go quiet again as they waited for her to continue.

Eunice finally said, "I think you still are, honey, and you need to give yourself more credit for that. It's understandable why you don't think so, but I keep telling you to stop letting what happened to you color your outlook. Now tell us more, did you have other friends, and what other stuff did you do in Chicago?"

Elona smiled at this and finally continued, "Well, I had another more quirky friend in middle school that I met in an art class, Hector. He was pretty adorkable, he loved to talk about card games he was into and classic sci-fi shows and other nerdy stuff I was into, too. He didn't look it but he was also a talented artist in his own right as he seemed to enjoy analyzing and explaining math in artwork and how it made art better. I think he also had a bit of a crush on me in middle school because he sometimes got tongue tied around me, and although I got used to it I just didn't like him that way. I didn't say anything for a while because I was afraid of hurting his feelings, but I think he eventually accepted that. He's a school teacher now and teaching Geometry, he's really good at it.

"My last two best friends I met late in high school, Lucas and Gwendelyn. They seemed like your typical high school power couple because Gwen was a cheerleader and Lucas was a basketball player. Because I was on the school drill team, because I loved to dance Gwen and I had a bit of a tense rivalry for a while. In fact, when I was the new kid in school, she almost out right just bullied me by just putting down and being condescending about how the drill team was a joke and rip off of real athletes like cheerleaders. But then one day she badly sprained her ankle and couldn't go on to state cheerleading championships and lost interested in picking on me, so I told her out right how she got what she deserved and how I hated being bullied by her. To make a long story short, if it hadn't been for my sister, who was also a cheerleader at the time, things might've gotten ugly. But we soon found a common ground and Gwen told me she really thought I was good and she was only a cheerleader because her mom pushed her so much and what she really wanted to do was go to beauty school. So, she finally focused on her studies, and I helped her a lot in school and she was able to save up to go and has become a really good beautician at a tourist spa.

"Lucas was quite the basketball player and really loved Gwen and was there for her when she needed him. We weren't all that close in school, but he's a really nice guy and is now a college basketball coach. He and Gwen got married right out of college, but I couldn't attend their wedding because…urgh, _he_ wouldn't let me."

At the last few words, Elona growled through her teeth and squeezed her hands into fists a little too hard she almost crushed her coffee cup.

Again things were quiet for another rather long minute as Elona seemed to fume over her ex.

Why couldn't she let it go?

Because _he_ was to blame for everything that ruined her life, even her own parents siding with him. Why side with him? Why did it have to happen to her?

"If it'll make you any better, Elona," Wanda spoke gently, "You can talk about what you saw in him before you broke up with him."

"Why?" she seethed, "So I just bring up my pain again? Continue to feel angry and sorry for myself, and never be able to move on? Continue to be reminded of what drove me from home and how I'm now an outcast for the rest of my life?"

"Actually, talking about it is the first real step if you really want to move on, Elona," Wanda said, "It will take you time to heal, but you have to start somewhere."

"Wanda's right, Honey," Euince said, "I might not know what you went through with him, because Frank and I were literally made for each other. But if he ever did something like that to me, I'd do far worse than tear him apart."

"Any man who dared betray or besmirch my affections in any fashion, I'd have executed immediately," Nefi declared with a smug smile.

"I'd just spread nasty gossip and rumors to ruin a guy's reputation if he dumped me," Carrol said, "Particularly about a certain kind of _pride_ , if you get my meaning, heh, heh, heh."

This actually made Elona laugh as she thought about what Wanda said. She took a deep sigh and decided Wanda might be right, so she should at least give it a try.

"Well," she began, "we meet about two years ago, or maybe it's coming up to three now, and it was at a nice local bar where my friends and I were just hanging out and doing karaoke like we always did. He came up to me and gave a really charming comment about my singing after hearing me sing. He said he sang too, and was in a band in the Marines, and he played a horn and piano on the side. So we got to talking and we just seemed to really click. I thought it was love at first side, like a Wa-Pow! as Liz called it at the time."

The ladies smiled at this.

Elona continued, "At first he was so nice and charming, not Dracula charming, but in his own way. Being a Marine, he was always so proud to serve his country, and I thought it made him so altruistic and selfless. When he was serving he always told me I gave him reason to survive the fighting because I was his anchor, his soul, and he loved me so much."

There was more, an Elona smiled at some of her better memories with Jason with a bit of nostalgia. But it dropped to a deep frown as she then remembered the worst of their relationship.

"But then after we made plans to do something together, days or even weeks in advance, he'd cancel them at literally the last minute for one stupid reason or another. I tried to be understanding about it, because then he'd do something hopelessly romantic in hopes of making up for it and promised never to do it again. But then for no good reason, he'd yell at me for the stupidest reasons, like because he didn't like something I did without him or without his 'permission', or something I said, or forgot to do some little thing while we were living together."

Elona began to seethe with growing hurt anger as she continued to speak, her eyes glassed over a bit with tears,

"And he didn't just yell, he shouted and yelled _right in my face_ like a cadet at boot camp! And it scared me so badly until I cried and he'd yell even more about how weak and pitiful I was. He even called me the worse names; slut, bitch, even the C word."

The ladies were just aghast at what they heard as Elona tried to hold back angry and hurt tears from the painful memories.

"That bastard," Carrol gasped in growing anger.

"Indeed," Nefi agreed with a mad frown, "Despicable doesn't begin to describe it. If a man dared speak to me in such a manner, I'd have him publicly humiliated before having him publically executed. There's the satisfying and rather nearly forgotten art of being burnt at the steak, or perhaps the slow torment of removing his organs before burying him alive."

The others gave Nefi some disturbed looks as she took another sip of her Mummy Macchiato.

"What?" she asked with a shrug.

"Not that it's not appropriate somehow for you, Nefi," Elona said with a monotone, "But you've got some pretty scary and dark thoughts."

"What can I say," she said with smile, "I enjoy the traditions of thousands of years ago."

They again shared a friendly laugh, and it actually made Elona feel better and was the closest to old times she remembered with her friends back home.

"Well, we could talk about how we'd dish out a woman's fury all night," Wanda said, "But I want to talk more about your friends. It sounds like they really cared about you, and I wouldn't mind meeting them some day."

"Especially when one of them has had a crush on you for years," squeaked Eunice, "How adorable."

"Funny enough," Elona said, "While I was dating Jason, my friend Hector told me he was worried about me because he didn't trust or like Jason. I thought it was just his typical puppy love jealousy, which some of it was, but he was also a friend who was trying to protect me. Although he did get over protective sometimes, and Drac's over protectiveness of me reminds me of it a little. After we broke up, Hector tried to be there for me, but I thought he was trying to make a move on me at the time and I just pushed him away. Not only had I just had a painful break up, I had just lost my job not long after. And now that I think about it, maybe he really was just trying to help me but I thought he was trying to make himself a fall back guy and take advantage of me because I was feeling so emotionally vulnerable. If I ever get in touch with him again, I'll need to do some serious apologizing for how I treated him."

"I'm sure he knows, dearie," Wanda said.

"We all do things we don't mean at the time," Eunice said with sympathy, "Even mistreating our friends sometimes when we don't mean to."

"This is true," Nefi said, "What matters most is knowing friendship can endure even the most distressing of conflicts."

"I have no doubt you'll make it up to him some day, even see your friends again," Carrol said as her glasses expressed a hopeful wide eyed look to show she was smiling, and then teased like a gossip girl,

"Besides, you should consider yourself so lucky to have all these guys coming after you. I lost that perk after becoming invisible."

"I don't know about that, Carrol, but thanks anyway," Elona said, "But that might be another problem I've thinking about, that Drac might just be a fall back guy. What if I'm not over Jason completely? And then his thinking that I'm his wife's reincarnation just complicates the whole thing more."

"Well, that's something you two will have to work through," Wanda said, "And you know we'll be here to help you if you need us."

"And besides," Eunice said with a teasing smile, "Drac knows if he does anything to hurt you, I won't hesitate to punch him a new one where the Sun doesn't shine, and the Sun will be the least of his problems because I'll make him look worse than he did that time in the Lounge."

The ladies laughed again, though Elona's felt a bit more forced as she remembered that time and what Dracula told her. Part of her wanted to tell Eunice about this, but she remembered it wasn't her secret to tell and she didn't want to put him through the same misunderstanding she did with the rumors going around the hotel some time ago.

"Thanks, Eunice, but I don't think that'll be necessary," Elona said with a bit of a forced smile, "I'm sure we'll work it out."

She then got a new idea she hoped her new friends would be interested in, for it was something she had wanted to do for a long time but had believed she never would be able to do.

"So, would it be okay to talk about something else besides my guy problems now?" she politely asked.

"Sure, what do you want to talk about?" Eunice asked.

"I just remembered that when we first met you asked me to tell about my travels," Elona said with a genuine smile, "And I think I'd like to do that now."

The ladies now spent the rest of their time together to listen to Elona's stories. They gathered around a bit closer now to hear about Elona's travels throughout Europe, where she had gone and what she had learned about, and she even showed them pictures from her smart phone and told them what she could remember.

They became intrigued and entranced as she told them about visiting iconic places such as the Blarney Stone in Ireland, Loch Ness in Scotland, famous land marks in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a remnant of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, and so many other places she could have written a book about.

Maybe she will as a memoire some day.

Then she suddenly felt a sense of empowerment and happiness she hadn't felt in a long time as she said to her new friends,

"I'd hate to suddenly shorten out time together, guys," she said, "But, I suddenly feel more confident about talking to Drac. Maybe we can get together again later."

"Yeah, let's meet here same time next week," Eunice proposed, "Maybe plan and do something together for a girls' night out, maybe something outside the hotel."

"Maybe do something totally wild," Carrol suggested with some excitement.

"Or go see a movie," Wanda suggested.

"That sounds nice," Elona agreed, "I haven't been to the movies in months."

The others agreed and left Starbat's with hugs and good-byes.

Elona then made her way to the elevators to go see Dracula, but then realized she didn't really know where he might be. She would have called him on his phone, but remembered with a frustrated grunt she never got his number.

She thought she would ask Johnny for Dracula's number, but didn't really know where he was either at the moment.

She wondered about what to do as she waited for the elevator, and when the doors opened she was a little startled and surprised to see Vlad in the elevator.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Vlad…I mean, uh, Your Vampship…no, no, I-I mean uh…oh, stupid, stupid, stupid," she stammered with sudden nervousness.

Vlad gave a raised eyebrow for a moment at Elona's reaction to him, but just smiled with amusement as he said calmly as he stepped out of the elevator,

"It's okay, Vlad is fine. Where are you headed to, Miss Parker?"

Elona took a deep breath to calm down, wondering why Vlad made her so nervous and said with as much confidence as she could muster in the moment,

"I want to see Drac, but I don't know where he is at the moment. Have you seen him?"

"Mr. Tough Guy is in his office," Vlad said with dry amusement, "But he doesn't seem to be in the mood for my company, so I'm going to see to Denisovich."

"Oh," Elona breathed with some disappointment, but Vlad smiled as he told her,

"But I think he wouldn't mind seeing you. What do need to see him for, anyway?"

"Personal things we really need to discuss," Elona said vaguely, but of course Vlad just gave a knowing smirk.

"Ah, your little crazy lovers chase," he said teasingly.

"What?" Elona gasped, "Well, yeah, but we're not lovers. I mean, I really, really like him, but I wouldn't call us lovers…but do I hope that…not that I…"

Vlad just help up his hand to gently silence her as he then said with a fatherly smile, "It's quite alright, I know we don't know each other really well, but I don't mind Drac courting you."

"Courting me?" Elona asked with some awkwardness.

"Hanging out or dating, or whatever you kids call it these days," Vlad snarked a bit, "All I'm saying is even if you're human, you and Drac need to take it slow, don't rush into things too fast. He can be stubborn and even now he's still getting over Martha."

"He thinks I am Martha," Elona groaned a bit.

Vlad placed a hand on her shoulder and said gently, "I talked to him earlier and he knows you're not, and I know you're still dealing with your own problems, which is why I'm saying you two should take it slow. It happens with all kinds of new couples, especially interracial ones."

Elona somehow felt both better and awkwardly offended by what he said, but she just smiled politely and said,

"Uh, thank you, Vlad."

"You're quite welcome, Miss Parker," he said with a gentlemanly bow, "If you ever feel like you can't talk to my son, or you have a problem with him in some way, you can talk to me and I'll straighten out the boy for you. Have a lovely evening."

He began to walk away as Elona smiled at him, but before he got too far something popped into her head and she called to him,

"Oh, uh, Vlad, sir."

"Yes."

She momentarily hesitated as she thought about how to word what she was thinking, but decided to just be honest about it.

"Drac told me about his Hunger, and sometimes it has me worried. I honestly really want to help him with it, do you know any way I could help?"

Vlad just gave a bit of a sad look as he thought about how to answer, as he knew all too well how a Vampire's Hunger was a deeply personal and touchy subject, especially with millennia of Vampire history.

"I'm sorry, Miss Parker," he said with a low voice, "But it's a very complication thing I'm not sure any human could understand, and I mean no offense. The best I can tell you for now is for him to keep it from getting out of control, he must remain calm and do things that make him happy, which I have no doubt you can do."

"Okay, thank you," she said, unsure of what to think at what he told her.

He gave a polite smile and made his way down the hall.

Elona finally made it to Dracula's office and stared at the thick polished wooden door. Taking a deep breath she finally knocked in what she hoped was dignified and non intrusive way.

"Come in, come in! Who is it?!" Dracula's voice demanded in what sounded like a flustered and inconvenienced tone.

Elona slowly entered as she opened the door and said, "It's me, Drac, I just wanted to talk. But if this is a bad time I can come back later."

"Elona," she heard him say with a happy deep breath, "No, no, come in, it's great to see you."

Elona looked around wondering where he was, while at the same time was intrigued and amazing by what she could describe as a Victorian era gentleman's study, but she didn't see Dracula until she looked up.

For some reason he was walking on the ceiling, and she could see some shoe print scuff marks all over the ceiling like he had been pacing as though something deeply vexed him.

She couldn't help but smile as she asked, "What're you doing up there?"

"Oh, uh, just thinking," he stammered a bit, "I'll be right down."

"No, wait," she stopped him as she walked into the study towards him with a sway of hips in a very alluring fashion, "Stay that way for a minute, there's something I've always wanted to try."

Dracula raised an eyebrow as he watched her come to him from an upside down point of view. He was momentarily confused as she gently caressed his cheeks and sharp chin, and smiled as she slowly closed her eyes and he felt her lips kiss his.

For a moment he was wide eyed, but he too slowly closed his eyes as he gently held Elona's soft face between his own hands.

It was pure blissful sweetness as Dracula tasted Elona's warm soft lips against his own, and within that sweetness was the under taste of a hazelnut flavoring and chocolaty delectability of the mocha she had drunk earlier, and it warmed his soul as it supplemented and amplified an even sweeter fire he tasted.

Elona's tasted at his cool soft lips and marveled at how supple and strong they were, tasting that dark wildness and forbidden allure she always seemed to sense from him in the air surrounding his very presence, and yet somehow his darkness was beautiful and gentle enough to wrap her inside a warm safe blanket of pure joy, all underlined with a strange taste of minty freshness.

She opened her mouth only a tiny bit as though to take in more of his taste as she teased them with the tip of her tongue, and somehow Dracula understood this and returned the wet gesture with his own long tongue.

The kiss deepened for only a moment, but its blissful pleasure imprinted itself eternally into their minds.

Elona slowly and gently broke the kiss with a faint smacking of their lips as she smiled at him and he gave a deep sigh of something more fulfilling than contentment; perhaps a sense of soul freeing completion that was merely a taste of something more which awaited them both.

Elona smiled at this as he seemed to go a bit limp and suddenly felt to the floor with a hard bodily thumb, making Elona flinch a bit and go wide eyed.

With a grace of a swiftly passing shadow and a faint whoosh of air, Dracula shot straight up with his cape wrapped around himself and a wide eyed look of embarrassment on his face as he blushed bright pink and awkwardly laughed,

"Heh, heh, heh."

Gathering his dignity again he cleared his throat as he asked as charmingly as he could, "Ahem, so Elona, what brings you to my humble study?"

Elona got a bit more serious now, though she hesitated for a long moment as she was at a loss for words, rather how to say what was really on her mind.

"Well, Drac," she began, "We just really need to talk. There's really a lot to discuss."

"I know," he said with a low tone.

"Okay, there's really no point in dancing around the issue," she said, "And it's going to be difficult enough. The truth is I'm thinking about staying here indefinitely."

"Really?" he breathed with an undertone of hope as his eyes seemed to adorably grow again.

"Yes, but the big reason is because I really have nowhere else to go right now, and no money to support me any longer."

"Oh," he breathed with some disappointment.

She gave a small smile as she tried to reassure him, "But that doesn't mean, I haven't met some really great people here, especially you. I'm trying to say I'd want to stay mainly because of you, to see if whatever it is between us is real. But I honestly can't stay at all if you continue to put me in Martha's place. I don't want to hurt you or anyone else because of it, and if it does come to it I feel I'll have no choice but to leave."

"What? No," Dracula breathed with a growing desperation, "Elona, I know it's weird right now, and I want to know the answer as much as you, but I'd be thrilled if you stayed. We'll make it work, figure it out together. I'll do everything in my power to make your stay more comfortable, whatever you need to make you happy here."

She could hear the near pleaing in his voice, and she gave a small smile at it, but she still had to make him understand.

"Thanks, Drac," she said reassuringly, "But I don't want to be a guest permanently here. If I'm truly going to stay here, I have a couple of favors to ask but I'm a little apprehensive to ask them because I don't want you to think I'm asking for handouts or I'm incapable of doing things for myself."

"No, no, no," he tried to reassure her, "Whatever you need, I'll do whatever I can to help."

"Thanks," Elona said with a hopeful smile, "The truth is I need a job, but I don't think I really have the right skills for the hotel business."

"I can teach you," Dracula offered with a growing enthusiasm, "I'm certain I can find you something; perhaps as my assistant manager."

Elona let this sink in for a long moment as she awkwardly pursed her lips tightly. It was quite a generous offer, but she never really felt she was the management type. Yet maybe, with Dracula's guidance it might be a position she could achieve some day.

"Thanks, but maybe I could start somewhere simpler, like in a clerical position," she said a bit nervously as she made a circling gesture with her fingers.

"Okay, gotta start somewhere, right?" Dracula agree, "And I have a couple of conditions for you staying here as well."

"Okay," she said a bit nervously, "Like what?"

Dracula loosened his collar as he suddenly felt hot and nervous about what he wanted to ask, yet it seemed so easy in his head.

He gave a rather awkward gentlemanly bow as he stuttered a bit, "Elona, w-would you, eh, uh, do me the honor of uh…?"

She looked at him patiently.

"...to uh, to go with me to a place…t-to do, you know, a thing or something?"

Elona began to smile slowly as realization dawned on her.

"Are you asking me out on a date, Drac?" she asked a bit flattered and aghast.

"Y-yes," he admitted as he blushed, "A date. I've been wanting to ask for seemingly the longest time, but I never really got the courage or guts to do it. But, uh, w-what do you say?"

He gave a smile of nervous anticipation; a single bead of sweat slowly fell from his forehead down the side of his right eye.

Elona just gave a girlish giggle as she said, "Of course, I'd love to. I've been wondering when you'd ask me out officially. I hope it's something outside the hotel, because I really feel I might need a change of scenery soon."

Dracula gave a look that he wasn't so sure about this, but if it meant spending time with Elona and making her happy, and better yet giving her every reason to stay and be with him, then he'd at least be willing to try.

She then flirtatiously came up to him to slowly embrace him as she whispered, "Have I ever told you I love the way you roll your Rs?"

He leaned down and gently leaned his forehead into hers as he smiled and whispered with a teasing tone, "Rrreally?"

He gave a bit of rolling purr, making Elona giggle like a little girl before they kissed each other again.

* * *

"And so that's going to have to be it for now," Quasimodo declared to the three Bat Cronies, all of whom didn't look all that pleased with what he said.

"Urrrgh," Bela just grunted heavily, "Fine, whatever, short stack, we'll go with it for now. But you'll have to come up with something better than just relying on that little snack pack of yours. The boys and me have been itchin' for action for months."

"You'll get it," Quasimodo sneered though his teeth, "But you just need to be patient a while longer. My precious Esmeralda will be scouting ze hotel for what goes on and I will find a way into ze hotel again and find a way to ruin _Monsieur_ Dracula's reputation again. But until I know better what is going on, and I find a way out of zis squalor, we must bide our time more."

"So it's the same plan you had before," Bela said sarcastically, "How pathetic. I don't see how you're gonna get yourself out of this, seeing as how you're just some giant freak's babysitter for the rest of your pathetic little life."

"This is just a temporary setback, as I told you," Quasimodo growled through gritted teeth, "And I'll have you know, if it's any conciliation to your tiny pitiful brain, I'm going to find a way to use the over grown brainless bute. Even he must've grown disgusted with being cooped up and locked away for so many years, and I've only been down here nearly a month."

More would have been said, but Bela suddenly felt a pinch in the back of his mind telling him it was time to leave.

"He's coming," he declared with a hiss to Carridine and Jiangshi, who both gave frowns and flew off.

Bela looked back at Quasimodo with a frown, which was returned as he stroked Esmeralda's head, and he finally flew off to join the others.

At the end of the bridge to the dark forest, Bela landed with a hard thump on the ground in front of a frowning and displeased Vlad, who had his hands on his hips.

"Where were you shmucks?" he demanded.

Bela glared at the other cronies to keep quiet, but before one of them answered, Vlad just groaned,

"Oh, never mind, it's time to go home."

In a puff of red tinted black mist he became a slow flying elderly bat and flew off into the night with dawn just peeking out from the horizon.

Bela felt more frustrated than before, yet his gave a sinister smile to himself as he told himself to continue to be patient like the short stack said.


	20. Dancing with Dracula

Dancing with Dracula

Some days had gone by, and while Elona looked forward to her official first date with Dracula she was disappointed it had to be delayed or take a rain check for it for a while because he was so behind on 'a bat shit load of paper work'.

Part of her thought about the idea of being an assistant to the hotel manager, as one of her later jobs working for a museum had been interning as an office clerical assistant. Unfortunately, as he was going to be very busy for a while, she would have to tell him her idea at a later time.

So she decided to enjoy her time at the hotel for a while more before their first date, and whenever that may be.

Over those same few days she spend some time off and on with the girls, getting to know them a little better as they hung out at Starbat's, or even by the pool once or twice to get some fresh air and enjoy the warm days before the cooler seasons began.

Almost two weeks later, she decided to finally really check out the repaired and refurbished hotel gym as she felt there wasn't quite enough room in her suite/apartment for all the exercise and dancing she had been wanting to do, and she needed more space to dance in ways she hadn't in a seemingly long time and really needed to turn loose.

She dressed in a comfortable turquoise two piece workout suit of a polyester and cotton blend sports bra top and tight shorts down her muscular thighs and comfortable old tennis shoes, pulled up her brown hair into a high ponytail and packed a bag with her phone, hygiene products, water, medicine, and a change of clothes to take with her to the gym and where she wanted to go.

As she walked through the more crowded hotel hallways and open spaces she drew looks from a lot of guests, monsters and humans alike, many males giving faint or loud whooping calls, wolf whistles or cat calls as she walked by but she ignored them as she had her ears plugged with her ear phones plugged into her phone as she listened to some of her favorite empowerment songs on her playlist.

She began to pass by the Grand Ballroom on her way to the gym and who should also be passing by in the less crowded area but two familiar faces discussing more plans for the upcoming holiday party.

"So, Drac, I was thinking the Decorating Comity could…" Johnny spoke, but Dracula was barely listening to his son-in-law and whatever silly humany ideas for the party he had, as Dracula knew he could do this in his sleep, which he had.

Only half listening as Johnny rambled on about something, his eyes just started to wander about looking around the Gothic and art deco style of his hotel, his mind not really taking in any details or paying attention to what was around him as he had been a bit exhausted of late, even though he had managed to catch up on a lot of important hotel work he had neglected for a while. He then went slack jawed and wide eyed as he suddenly saw someone he wanted to see for a while but both of them had been too busy to even say hi.

It seemed to happen in slow motion for him as he watched Elona waking by, but she didn't seem to notice him or Johnny behind other guests as she passed them, but Dracula watched her with such strong intent the rest of the world just faded into a mist and became background noise to him as he watched her walk with such a hidden confidence and ethereal grace in her scantily clad outfit it was hypnotic to him as he felt his undead heart pound like a drum in his chest and echo in his ears.

His icy blue eyes seemed to light up with a warmth which grew and spread throughout his body and grew a bit hotter with every passing microsecond as he watched her down and up, taking in every detail of her lithe and sensuous body, yet his gaze landed on her tight booty and he watched it for an eternity as he heard a mesmerizing song in his head:

Hungry Eyes by Eric Carmen

 _I've been meaning to tell you/_

 _I've got this feeling that won't subside/_

 _I look at you and I fantasize/_

 _You're mine tonight._

 _Now I've got you in my sights/_

 _With these/_

 _Hungry Eyes._

 _One look at you and I can't disguise I've got/_

 _Hungry Eyes._

 _I feel the magic between You and I…_

"Drac!" Johnny's voice echoed from afar, "Hey, Drac! You there? Hellooo…!"

Johnny's hand suddenly waved in front of his line of sight, breaking his held gaze on a passing Elona and breaking him out of his mind numbed stupor as he suddenly snapped back to reality and stammered,

"Huh, what?"

He looked at Johnny, who just gave him a confused look of his own as he reminded him,

"We were talking about the Christmas decorations for the party, but I was also thinking of including one for maybe Hanukah and the Kwanzaa holidays because not everybody celebrates Christmas and I just thought it would be a good way to make lots of other people feel welcomed to the hotel."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, Johnny," Dracula said dismissively, "Whatever."

"Okay," Johnny breathed a bit awkwardly as he turned his attention back to the Grand Ballroom, "Anyway, I was thinking…Drac? Hey, where'd you go?"

Dracula had disappeared into thin air as Johnny had turned away, confusing him to no end.

As Elona made her way through the gym, with monsters and humans alike using the various workout machines to some degree of easy or difficult levels, the males again gave wolf whistles or cat calls as she walked by them and this time she decided to give more of a sassy sexy sway into her hips as she strut by them.

Normally in her travels as men noticed her and her sexy body, she just pushed them away and never really wanted to flaunt her looks in such as a way as she knew they only saw her as one time sex toy to add to their pathetic lists of lustful conquests and she was certain they never really saw her as a person with real value.

But now, ever since she came to the hotel her self esteem and confidence had slowly grown again over time and she could begin to really be herself again, even with her condition hanging like a dark cloud over her every waking hour for the rest of her life. Somehow, with her new friends, especially Dracula to a surprisingly large degree, she was feeling…there was really no other word she could think of, normal again.

She finally made it to a closed off room which was designed for private use or private gym lessons the hotel occasionally offered, which she had booked for herself and closed the door for some much needed privacy. It wasn't a very big room, but it was just what Elona needed for what she wanted to do, and all there was to the room was an open space with walls and the largest wall was all mirrors.

She set her bag away to a far corner out of the way, and did some stretching before she searched her playlist for good workout or dance songs she wanted to hear, not noticing or being any the wiser she had been followed or was being watched at this very moment as a little black bat hung upside down from a corner of the ceiling to observe and watch her with growing lust filled intrigue.

Elona finally found a song to start with, an old 2000s techno song called Naturally by the pop star Selena Gomez, which for some reason Elona then thought Mavis seemed to sound a lot like her when she sang. She just shrugged it away as she had heard of a lot of people being impersonators or just sounding like famous people when they talked or sang, so it was nothing too out of the ordinary.

As the music began, she began to bounce her body in her hips and legs, pumping her pelvis as she let the music fill her and felt it take over her very being, bring her own expression of dance through herself as she remembered the different kinds of dancing she had done in her life, from drill teams in school, to a bit of ballet and belly dancing.

Naturally by Selena Gomez

 _How you choose to express yourself/_

 _It's all your own, and I can tell/_

 _It comes naturally, it comes naturally/_

 _You follow what you feel inside/_

 _It's intuitive, don't have to try/_

 _It come naturally, mmm it comes naturally,_

 _And it takes my breath away/_

 _What you do so naturally/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _You are the thunder and I am the lightening/_

 _And I love the way you know who you are/_

 _And to me it's exciting/_

 _When you know it's meant to be/_

 _Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally/_

 _When you're with me, Baby/_

 _Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally/_

 _Ba-ba-baby_

 _You have a way of moving me/_

 _A force of nature, your energy/_

 _It comes naturally,(You know it does) It comes naturally/_

 _And it takes my breath away/_

 _What you do so naturally/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _When you collide, sparks fly/_

 _When you look into my eyes/_

 _It takes my breath away/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _Naturally (X5)_

 _Ba-ba-baby,_

 _Naturally (X5)_

Elona spun around, making herself go into a dizzying trace as the music faded, feeling so invigorated as she had moved her body to her own power moves.

Her playlist then randomly chose another song for her, this one strangely appropriate to her new growing relationship with Dracula by one of her favorite contemporary singers, Lady Gaga.

This was one of her earlier songs called The Edge of Glory, and what Elona really loved about it was its passion and the thrill of being in love like it was the first time again.

The song began with a low titillating techno pop sound, again the music filled up Elona's inner being like a misting cascade of a waterfall from a high mountain to become mist near the bottom, and she just let the rhythm come to her as she moved with the music and let it flow with her as though she were a part of it.

The Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga

 _There ain't no reason you and me should be alone/_

 _Tonight, yeah baby, tonight, yeah baby/_

 _I got a that reason you're who should take me home tonight/_

 _I need a man who thinks right when it's so wrong/_

 _Tonight, yeah baby, tonight, yeah baby/_

 _Right on the limits where we know where we both belong tonight/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _It's hard to feel the rush/_

 _To push the dangerous, I'm gonna run right to/_

 _To the edge with you/_

 _Where we can both fall over in love/_

 _I'm on the edge, of glory/_

 _And I'm on a moment of truth/_

 _I'm on the edge, of glory/_

 _And I'm hanging on a moment with you/_

 _I'm on the edge, the edge (X5)_

 _I'm on the edge with you._

 _Another shot before we kiss the other side/_

 _Tonight, yeah baby, tonight, yeah baby/_

 _I'm on the edge of something final we call life tonight/_

 _Alright, alright!/_

 _Put on your shades, 'cause I'll be dancin' in the flames/_

 _Tonight, yeah baby, tonight, yeah baby/_

 _It isn't hell if everybody know my name tonight!/_

 _Alright, alright!/_

 _(Chorus; followed by a brief smooth saxophone solo)_

 _I'm on the edge with you, I'm on the edge with you!_

 _(Repeat chorus)_

 _I'm on the edge of, glory/_

 _And I'm hanging on a moment of truth/_

 _I'm on the edge, of glory/_

 _And I'm hanging on a moment with you/_

 _I'm on the edge with you (Repeat to music fade)_

As Elona danced to the song Dracula watched with a growing awe at her movements, becoming just mesmerized by them; the way she swayed and swung her round hips from side to side and combined them with what had to be belly dance moves, which did interesting things to her midriff, hips, and tush as she rolled it in circles, a kind of 8 movement, and even rolled her shoulders as she waved her arms with such grace like she was flying and they were made of flowing water.

As she twirled or just spun again like a small whirlwind before she kicked one of her legs up high, or leaped into a wide spread eagle jump split across the floor, showing she must have been a passionate and nimble ballerina at some point in her life. Through his enhance supernatural hearing he heard the songs she listened to, and he loved and admired the way she just spread her arms and lip synced to the words 'the edge' like it was an empowerment for her.

The more and longer he watched her, the more he wanted to join her as an agonizing aching longing to be with her, an inner torment to feel what she might be feeling through music alone.

But on a more primal and even on a visceral level he wanted to feel _her_.

Yet knowing her as well as he did and more every day, he will wait centuries even one thousand years if he has to, and for now he will wait.

But now, maybe just a small taste.

Yes, just a small taste.

He saw she was about to begin dancing to another song, one Johnny seemed to enjoy playing not long after his grandson was born, and somehow in this moment it was more appropriate than even he ever thought it could be for him.

Elona got in front of the mirror and kneeled in front of it as he heard another techno beat start, then before the first lyrics began she stood up hard and began popping her hips hard from side to side again as she then began what had to be her own style or attempt to do dance moves from a Lady Gaga music video.

Born this Way by Lady Gaga

 _It doesn't matter if you love him,_

 _Or capital H-I-M._

 _Just put your paws up, 'cause you were Born This Way, Baby!_

 _My mama told me when I was young, we are all born superstars/_

 _She rolled my hair up, put my lipstick on in the glass of her boudoir/_

 _"There's nothin' wrong with lovin' who you are," she said,_

 _"'Cause he made you perfect, Babe."/_

 _"So hold your head up, girl, and you'll go far, listen to me when I say:"/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby/_

 _I was Born This Way!/_

 _Don't hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you're set/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was Born This Way! (Born this Way!)/_

 _Ooh, there ain't no other way/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way!/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way! (Born This Way!)/_

Elona began just spinning and backing up again as the chorus played, completely lost and submerged in the self empowering song as she popped her body and bobbed her head to the techno beat, but suddenly felt herself bump into a hard but familiar presence, startling her and snapping her back to reality as she whirled around and saw Dracula standing behind her and smiling.

He just couldn't take it anymore, he just had to join her in the dancing fun she was having.

Elona stopped her music and gave a surprised and confused look at the infamous Vampire; looking to him and back at the mirror a couple of times but not seeing his reflection at all in the large wall mirror. For a moment she wondered again if this was some sort of state of the art special effect for the hotel, but then remembered something about Vampire myths.

"Huh, right," she breathed a bit, "No reflection."

She took a minute to catch her breath and finally got a bit serious with Dracula as she asked, "What're you doing here anyway, Drac? I thought you were going to be busy for a while with hotel business."

He didn't really say anything, but just smiled as he suddenly just leaped over her like he was the shadow of some big cat making the kill in ambush on a prey, but instead he landed in the middle of the open dance floor as his cape came alive and boogied to one side as Dracula landed on one hand and spun in a dizzying whirl like in a break dance move looking like a black blur; then for some reason did a wave or something called the Worm with amazing fluidic grace like he was made of air; the next thing Elona saw he spun up onto the tips of his sharp dress shoes like he was a black dust devil and his cape reattached itself to him moments before he just stopped spinning but continued to move with preternatural grace as though he were made of air as he suddenly started swinging or swaying his torso with what Elona could only thing were Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson movies, but somehow Dracula did them 10 times better despite how weirdly his legs looked as flexible as spaghetti to her as she tried to hold in a giggle, yet she couldn't deny there was some weird kind of serpentine and feline grace to him as he moved.

He did one last dizzying kneeled spin from the floor and back up as though he were made of air and shadow, his cape wrapped around him like a cocoon before he stopped on a dime a microsecond later in a quiet whoosh of air and just smiled at Elona as he held out a hand for her to take. For a moment she was unsure of what to do, but just smiled as she made her smart phone start the music again as she unplugged her earphone and turned up the volume to the max.

She then took his hand and he spun her in place as he then dipped her into one of his other arms as she kept her long legs straight and stiff to the ground to the beat of the music before spinning her back onto her feet and she began swaying her hips to the beat, mesmerizing him again as he momentarily saw her resume doing her own style of Lady Gaga dancing, to which he began to shadow and imitate her.

When she rolled or shifted her body from her head to her hips in a wave style, he did the same but in the opposite direction as though to mirror but be opposite of her as they circled each other; this would then lead into the Lady Gaga style dance of a skip stomp to the chorus of the music, and somehow Dracula and Elona were in perfect sync to each other.

Born This Way by Lady Gaga continued:

 _Ooh, there ain't no other way/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way! (Born This Way!)_

Elona then just started doing arm movements, like Vogue or some personal style where only the arms needed to move to the music, as she then moved to the rhythm and it made its way into her shoulders as she did a kind of popping shimmy as her arms became like graceful waves or slithering serpents, her movements making their way once more into her midriff and hips as she swayed and popped them from side to side, Dracula observing her in hypnotized fascination as he just imitated her and yet brought his own graceful yet masculine style to the dance, punching the air in different directions and doing another single twirl, making his cape spread and whoosh gracefully behind him, as they circled each other at this chorus:

 _I'm on the right track, Baby/_

 _I was Born This Way!/_

 _Don't be a drag, just be a queen!/_

 _Don't be a drag, just be a queen!/_

 _Don't be a drag, just be a queen! (Don't be)_

 _Give yourself prudence, and love your friends/_

 _Subway kid, rejoice your truth/_

 _In the religion of the insecure/_

 _I must be myself, respect my youth/_

 _A different lover is not a sin/_

 _Believe capital H-I-M! (Hey, Hey, Hey!)/_

 _I love my love and I love this record and,_

 _Mi amore vole fe yah_ (French for 'My love needs faith')/

They resumed the Lady Gaga skip stomp associated with the song, both bringing their own styles to the mix and just seemed to be spontaneous with each other from there in their unified dancing, as though their thoughts and their bodies were becoming one:

 _I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was Born This Way!/_

 _Don't hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you're set/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was Born This Way!/_

 _Ooh, there ain't no other way/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way!/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way! (Born This Way!)/_

 _(Way…Way...Don't be…d-don't be-e….don't be-e…)_

 _Don't be a drag, just be a queen/_

 _Whether you're broke or evergreen/_

 _You're black, white, beige, chola descent/_

 _You're Lebanese, you're Orient/_

 _Whether life's disabilities left you outcast, bullied or teased/_

 _Rejoice and love yourself today, 'cause Baby, you were Born This Way!/_

 _No matter gay, straight, or bi/_

 _Lesbian, transgendered life/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was born to survive!/_

 _No matter black, white, or beige, Chola or orient made/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was born to be brave/_

 _I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was Born This way!/_

 _Ooh, there ain't no other way/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way!/_

 _Don't hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you're set/_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was Born This Way, Yeah!/_

 _Ooh, there ain't no other way/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way!/_

 _Baby, I was Born This Way! (Repeat 2X)_

 _I was Born This Way, hey!/ (Repeat 2X)_

 _I'm on the right track, Baby, I was Born This Way, hey, hey!_

 _(Whispering) Same DNA, but Born This Way (Repeat 3X)_

As the music slowly faded, Dracula and Elona slowly put their hands onto each other; Elona slowly stroking up Dracula's chest and onto his shoulders as he gently stroked at her waist and around to her bare back as their began to slowly and gently sway back and forth on the balls of their feet, both a bit out of breath as they panted from the intense dancing until the final note played.

They stared for a long eternity into each other's eyes, completely lost in an unseen ethereal world all their own as their hearts pounded together with the rhythm of celestial cosmic thunder giving life to an infinite microcosm far more vast than the physical universe itself which has ever been observed with the naked eye.

It was as though fire and ice, sky and earth were coming together to be as one as they steadily brought their faces closer together once more to bring a perfect balance to each other in a single kiss to express something much deeper and fathomless.

Their lips were mere millimeters apart when the silence between them broke with the beginning of another and strangely appropriate Lady Gaga song on Elona's playlist; making them push apart. Elona began to sharply pop and sway her round hips as she began to walk with hard steps to circle him again, while Dracula swayed more in his broad shoulders and matched her hard steps as he faced her and circled her in the opposite direction as they got into the rhythm of the music:

Bad Romance by Lady Gaga

 _Ohh-oh-oh-oh-ooohh_

 _Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!/_

 _Caught in a bad romance! (Repeat 2X)_

 _Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!/_

 _Roma-ro-ma-ma!/_

 _Ga-ga-ooh-lah-lah!/_

 _Want your bad romance! (Repeat 2X)_

Elona began to do another version of her own style of Lady Gaga moves to icon song, making cat claws and a hand jive combo as she swayed her hips more, while Dracula brought his own style as he seemed to imitate her but also seemed to bring a kind of Vampire charm and seduction to it as he waved his cape to the rhythm with a quiet yet tangible whoosh as they continued to circle each other.

 _I want your ugly, I want your disease/_

 _I want your everything, as long as it's free/_

 _I want your love, Love-love-love, I want you love/_

 _I want your drama, the touch of your hand/_

 _I want your leather studded kiss in the sand/_

 _I want your love, Love-love-love, I want your love/_

Elona actually began to touch and stroke herself seductively to this next verse, causing Dracula to feel hot under the collar as he eyed her and his intrigue grew; her hands going from her hips to up her waist to nearly touch her rounded bosom and slowly back down as she lip synced to the lyrics:

 _You know that I want you, and you know that I need you/_

 _I want it bad, your bad romance/_

She suddenly resumed doing her own styled moves of the dance to the song, for a moment surprising Dracula, but he read her body language, and perhaps subconsciously her mind as well, as clear as crystal and they continued to be in perfect sync with each other as though they were becoming two parts of one balanced force:

 _(Chorus)_

 _I want your love, and I want your revenge/_

 _You and me could write a bad romance/_

 _Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oooohh/_

 _I want your love, and all your lover's revenge/_

 _You and me could write a bad romance/_

 _Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooooh!_

 _Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!_

 _Caught in a bad romance!/ (Repeat 2X)_

 _Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!/_

 _Roma-ro-ma-ma!/_

 _Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!_

 _Want your bad romance!/_

 _I want your horror, I want your design/_

 _'Cause you're a criminal as long as you're mine/_

 _I want your love, Love-love-love, I want your love/_

 _I want your psycho, you vertigo stick/_

 _Want you in my rear window, Baby, you're sick/_

 _I want your love, Love-love-love, I want your love/_

 _You know that want you, ('Cause I'm a free bitch, Baby!)/_

 _You know that I need you/_

 _I want your bad, bad romance/_

 _I want your love, and I want your revenge/_

 _You and me could write a bad romance/_

 _I want your love, and all your lover's revenge/_

 _You and me could write a bad romance/_

 _Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!/_

 _Oh-oh-ooooh-oh-oh!/_

 _Caught in a bad romance!/ (Repeat 2X)_

 _Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!/_

 _Roma-ro-ma-ma!/_

 _Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!/_

 _Want your bad romance!/_

 _Walk, walk, fashion, Baby/_

 _Work that bitch crazy!/ (Repeat 3X)_

 _Walk, walk, passion, Baby/_

 _I'm a free bitch, Baby!/_

Elona fell to the floor and began crawling slowly and sensually towards Dracula as he just stopped in his tracks and watched her, feeling like a small fire was growing inside his body to set his spirit aflame in the form of tiny beads of sweat to give his pale smooth skin an iridescent sheen as he tried to hold back rising desires as she again lip synced to the next lyrics:

 _I want your love, and I want your revenge/_

 _I want your love, I don't wanna be friends/_

 _J'ai ton amour, Et je veux ton revenge/_

 _J'ai ton amour, I don't wanna be friends/_

She came within at least two feet of him and slowly rose to her knees as though to beg him for something, and he couldn't help but see it do something interesting to her chest as slowly moved like a cat:

 _Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh!_

 _I don't wanna be friends! (Caught in bad romance!)/_

 _I don't wanna be friends!_

 _Oh-oh-ooooh-oh-oh!_

 _Want your bad romance! (Caught in a bad romance!)/_

 _Want your bad romance!/_

The last verse she seemed to beg to him in a shout, making his eyes go wide with fascination as she suddenly rose up in a snap and they grabbed each other's hands in a crossing and they began spinning together in a circle, making Dracula's cape flutter in the faint wind they created as the song continued:

 _I want your love, and I want your revenge!/_

 _You and me could write a bad romance!_

 _Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!_

 _I want your love, and all your lover's revenge/_

 _You and me could write a bad romance!/_

 _Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh!/_

 _Oh-oh-ooooh-oh-oh!/_

 _Want your bad romance! (Caught in a bad romance!)/_

 _Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah!/_

 _Ro-ma-ro-ma-ma!/_

 _Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!/_

 _Want your bad romance!_

They slowed down at the last verse, laughing out of breath and panting with each other as they smiled. But Dracula didn't notice where he stepped and suddenly felt his feet and lower legs entangle in his cape, making his trip and fall back with a hard bodily thump to the hard stone cold floor and taking Elona with him as he still held her hands.

They gave sharp but faint yelps as they fell and just started laughing as Dracula found Elona atop of himself.

Time and the world seemed to fade for them in a moment as their laughs quieted and their eyes locked once more to get lost in each other as they gazed into deep horizons of blue crystals gleaming in the sky touched by the ocean, all while something warm and comforting enveloped them in an aura of a life sustaining occult blanket which made its way through them as they slowly embraced.

Dracula gently touched at Elona's right cheek, caressing the soft moist skin as his other hand felt her sweaty waist and back, stroking it ever so lightly as she touched at his broad shoulder and slow caressed to his long neck, staring longingly into his eyes as she touched at his right sharp cheek.

He put his hand to the back of her head at the base where it met her neck and gently massaged it as he gingerly pulled her down and he closed his eyes and she slowly closed hers. The next moment, their lips touched in a momentary peck, but it grew quickly into something more as the kiss deepened to bring with it exotic tastes of something foreign yet familiar to each of them, something out of reach and beyond both of them as individuals but together they can touch the untouchable and reach the unreachable.

Their make out was becoming more intense by the moment as they tightened their embrace with each other, something like a burning celestial fire was growing between them and they wanted more.

Unfortunately, on a whim Elona suddenly broke the kiss as she felt one of Dracula's hands make its way under her sports bra and felt a hardening bulge growing in his pants, snapping her back to reality and she pushed herself from atop of him as she breathed heavily from a growing and familiar apprehension.

"No," she cried low as she panted, her back momentarily turned as Dracula just looked up confused and his arms were empty.

With a quiet whoosh of air he rose straight and stiff as though from his coffin as he looked at Elona in confusion.

A tense silent moment passed between them again as he waited for her to say something, but she didn't.

He finally just asked quietly, "Elona, what's wrong?"

She slowly turned, not quiet meeting his eyes as she said low, "I'm sorry, I just…I can't. I can't cross that line; I can never cross it again."

Dracula seemed to understand as he said quietly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No, I should be sorry," Elona said quietly with some guilt, "I've been trying to let it go, move on and stuff. But it's just so hard, you know? It's just the last time…you know…"

He did, and he just said, "Elona, I would never hurt you."

She finally looked at him, somehow knowing he meant it in more ways than one.

Tenseness followed again, Dracula took a bit of a deep breath as he asked gently, "Would you like to dance some more?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she said low again.

"How about something slow and quiet," he suggested, "I can teach you a bit of ballroom dancing or a waltz I remember from my time with Martha."

"That sounds nice." She searched her playlist, and found the best quiet songs she had were by an Irish New Age singer she loved called Enya.

So Elona set her playlist for those songs as she went up to Dracula again and he gently showed her where to place her arms for a bit of slow dancing.

Nothing more was said, as they just wanted to enjoy being together in the moment and let come what may at a later time. For now they just gently swayed in a circle to a song called Watermark by Enya.

Unbeknownst to both of them, they had been watched the entire time by a familiar pair of unwanted and livid rodent eyes. In a corner of the open exercise room, out of sight of where even Dracula wouldn't notice in his bat form, Esmeralda watched her friend's and master's two intended targets at his request observing them closely for anything he could try and use against Dracula in his plan for future revenge.

While doing this, she also had free reign of the rest of the hotel to keep him informed, and while she understood why he was doing it and why it needed to be done, she still couldn't help but feel it was all in vain and will lead to nothing but trouble for both of them; especially if he continued to collude and ally himself with that untrustworthy and vile giant bat creature.

Seeing nothing else of relevance, and feeling if it got anymore saccharinely sentimental she would hurl at any moment, Esmeralda quiet and stealthily skittered her way out of the workout room and into the underbelly of the hotel.

* * *

 **I hope everyone enjoyed this musical chapter. To know the feel of the music I hope I was going for, the songs can be listened to on YouTube or any place else one can find their favorite music.**

 **Part 2 is coming soon.**


	21. Dating with Dracula

Dating with Dracula

A couple hours later, after Elona freshened up she headed for the hotel lounge to meet Dracula for a nice drink and have some nice quiet time together. Despite the awkwardness after that last intense kiss, neither of them wanted it to ruin the possibility of their real first date, so Elona thought this might just be a good test run before the first official date.

She dressed in a casual but nice for a 'kinda date' and time with Dracula clothes of a modest soft denim jean skirt to show off just enough of her legs, with a rather tight blue V-neck short sleeved blouse cut low enough to show a modest amount of cleavage, with smooth fancy ridges going diagonally over her left side and comfortable black flats, and her hair was done simply in a refreshed ponytail and she wore a bit of just touched on make-up.

She sat lady like at the bar to wait for Dracula, and snacked a bit on what looked like nuts, and if they weren't she didn't want to know what they really were. She then saw it was Karaoke Night in the lounge again as she saw this time there were kids singing as it was a family edition. On stage were adorable little Dennis and a werewolf girl singing You Got a Friend In Me from the classic movie Toy Story and they sounded just precious together.

"… _You got a friend in meee_ ," they concluded the song together, and the modest audience clapped to for them, especially their parents whom Elona saw nearby, Johnny and Mavis, and Wanda and Wayne.

The next one onto the stage for a karaoke song was a bright green slime monster Elona had infrequently seen around the hotel, and mostly avoided because he made her uncomfortable for some reason, which just made her more uncomfortable because she knew the monsters at the hotel meant her no harm. The green slime monster began its song, the tune Elona recognized as the classic song I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, but his 'singing' just came out as incomprehensible gurgling like someone was trying to talk with water or through a mouth full of jell-o.

Elona and plenty of others in the lounge couldn't help but laugh a bit at the poor slime monster's singing, but everyone just took it in good natured stride and politely applauded the monster when he was done.

Next up was a nervous looking yeti kid, who shook from either nerves or excitement as she began singing with some nervous choking breaks in her voice to the popular song Let It Go from the now classic movie Disney's Frozen.

Elona held back a bit of a laugh as she watched the nervous but adorable little yeti girl sing to then be noticed by Wanda, Wayne, Mavis, and Johnny as they invited her over to join them.

To not seem rude she joined them at their table as they greeted her, "Hey, Elona, how have you been? Here for another Karaoke Night? You look really nice, are you meeting anyone special tonight?"

She smiled with a bit of nervousness herself now as she simply said, "I'm doing better than I have in a long time, and I'm meeting Drac here. He had to finish some work, but he should be here in a few minutes."

"So you and Drac finally started dating?" Johnny asked with a bit smile as he gave a thumbs up, "Awesome sauce."

"That is wonderful," Mavis said with a smile, "It's way passed time if you asked me."

"So, you're okay with it, Mavis?" Elona asked with a bit of uncertainty, knowing how kids felt about single parents dating, as one of her friends was an only child with divorced parents.

"Sure, Elona," Mavis said happily with reassurance to her, "As much as I know he loved my mom, I think he deserves the same happiness he finally let me have with Johnny. I'd only be worried if I thought you were someone who wanted to hurt him like humans from a long time ago, but now that humans love monsters I know you and Johnny are nothing like that."

Elona wasn't really sure how to take that, but she was just glad she was okay with Mavis in her book, so she just smiled politely and said,

"Thank you, Mavis. I know we don't hang out much, but I would like to get to know you and Johnny better, maybe even your son if that's okay."

"Hey, we'd love to hang out with you," Johnny said happily, "In fact, you, me, Mavy, and Drac should do a double date thing, it'll be so cool."

"Well, not yet," Elona laughed a bit nervously again, "Right now we're meeting for drinks, and our first 'official' date, at least to him is supposed to be right after he's done with paper work and stuff, so I don't know when that'll be other than soon. But we'll think about it, okay, Johnny?"

"Great, we look forward to it," Johnny said with his goofy smile and gave another thumbs up as Mavis smiled wide at the idea.

Wanda then suggested, "While you're waiting, why don't you sing another song? I actually enjoyed the last one we and the girls did with you a while back, and Wayne and I already did a duet together."

"I actually thought about doing another song with Drac when he gets here," Elona said, "But that might be a good idea."

"I'll sign you up, Elona," Johnny said, "But first, I'm up next now."

Johnny got up on stage, and did his own rendition of the 1990s rap classic Ice, Ice, Baby by Vanilla Ice, sounding pretty good with the rapping but looking really goofy and ridiculous as he did a Running Man dance with his usually baggy clothes flopping all over the place.

Elona and the others couldn't help laughing and enjoying themselves.

After another human man sang his karaoke song, rather badly of course, Elona went up on stage and selected a song she had wanted to do for a while now.

Fight Song by Rachel Platten:

 _Like a small boat, on the ocean/_

 _Sending big waves into motion/_

 _Like how a single word/_

 _Can make a heart open/_

 _I might only have one match/_

 _But I can make an explosion/_

 _And all those things I didn't say/_

 _Wrecking balls inside my brain/_

 _I will scream them loud tonight/_

 _Can you hear my voice this time?/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _This is my fight song/_

 _Take back my life song/_

 _Prove I'm all right song/_

 _My powers turned on/_

 _Starting right now, I'll be strong/_

 _I'll play my fight song/_

 _And I don't really care if nobody else believes/_

 _'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me/_

 _Losing friends and I'm chasing sleep/_

 _Everybody's worried about me, in too deep/_

 _Say I'm in too deep/_

 _And it's been two years, I miss my home/_

 _There's a fire burning in my bones/_

 _And I still believe, yes I still believe/_

 _And all those things I didn't say/_

 _Wrecking balls inside my brain/_

 _I will scream them loud tonight/_

 _Can you hear my voice this time?/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _This is my fight song/_

 _Take back my life song/_

 _Prove I'm all right song/_

 _My powers turned on/_

 _Starting right now, I'll be strong/_

 _I'll play my fight song/_

 _And I don't really care if nobody else believes/_

 _'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me/_

 _A lot fight left in me/_

 _Like a small boat, on the ocean/_

 _Sending big waves into motion/_

 _Like how a single word/_

 _Can make a heart open/_

 _I might only have one match/_

 _But I can make an explosion/_

 _(Final Chorus)_

 _This is my fight song/_

 _Take back my life song/_

 _Prove I'm all right song/_

 _My powers turned on/_

 _Starting right now, I'll be strong/_

 _I'll play my fight song/_

 _And I don't really care if nobody else believes/_

 _'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me/_

 _Now I've still got a lot of fight left in me._

As Elona sang her song, she put so much heart and passion into it through her voice it just carried and reverberated throughout the lounge making nearly all activity within come to a near standstill as a deep silence fell for all to listen to her, for her voice was like a nightingale mixed with the strength of a Valkyrie rising up from a terrible defeat on the battlefield and getting ready to prove her strength and prowess once again; a call to all to join with her in the self empowering song of life and show that they too can make a difference.

As the song ended, the entire lounge remained silent for only a half longer before the entire entranced audience of both monsters and humans finally broke out in a thunderous applause with loud cheering and whistles for an encore.

Elona just smiled wide, making her face more beautiful in the eyes of someone she had come to care about deeply as he cheered for her, and she just basked in this moment in the spot light as she gave a few bows to the applause, the song seeming like a boost of renewed strength for her as a catharsis to finally let go of some of her burdens weighting heavily upon her soul for so long.

She finally saw who she was waiting for, and the small crowd spread away from Dracula as he held out a hand to her and helped her off the stage smiling at her.

"That was inspiring," he complemented to her with deep sincerity as he truly did feel inspired by the song and its simple yet empowering message.

"Thank you," Elona said through her growing smile and blushed a deep rosie pink.

He escorted her with her arm in his to a private both, everyone giving them a wide berth and tried not to meet his gaze.

Some silent and tense memory of what happened the last time the Count was in the lounge lingered, and the gargoyle bar tender had made it clear to the suit of armor guards to watch for any guest that got too tipsy or tried to make rude and inappropriate calls to the Count's daughter in the lounge, they were to be removed immediately as well as to leave their manager well enough alone unless spoken to.

The bar tender eyed Dracula a bit wearily as he cleaned some glasses, as well as looked around the lounge quickly to make sure everyone was behaving themselves, and so far all was well as no one was even looking at him and his lovely human companion and was being left well enough alone.

In their quiet corner, Dracula ordered him and Elona two non-alcoholic drinks, one with one of his blood substitutes for him and a fruit drink for Elona. She gave him a small look of annoyance as she said,

"Still determining what I can and can't eat or drink, Drac? I can drink a safe amount of alcohol, despite my condition, I've done it before."

He just looked back at her with some sternness as he said, "I just don't want you to over indulged right now, besides we don't really know what effects my lounge's usual drinks would have on you, some of them are pretty strong and I've heard of humans dropping after the first swig." He gave a small smile as he continued with a softer tone,

"But I don't want to to argue right now, we're here to have a nice time and just enjoy ourselves. I haven' t seen you for a while."

She gave a small smile too as she saw him place a hand over one of her hers and he slowly leaned towards her and be close to filling her entire line of sight, then she asked a bit coyly,

"So is this finally our first date?"

"Not quite," he whispered with a smile back to her, "But it will be soon, as I have something special planned for a real romantic night out."

She gave a small laugh, really looking forward to it. But it faded as she became a bit more series as she said,

"Look, about what almost happened earlier…"

Dracula just gave a bit of a confused look at first, but just smiled as he teased a bit, "The kiss? It was amazing…"

"Yes, it was," Elona said with some reserved doubt, "but I mean with the way you were touching me…"

Dracula lost his smile as though a look of hurt slowly came over him.

"I just want to make something clear for both of us," she slowly said with some sadness, "As much as I like you, Drac, there are some things I can never do again."

"Elona," he breathed low, but she flinched away from him as he reached out to her face.

"Please," she pleaded to him, "I just can't, not like that again. I want things to work with us, but not like that. There're some lines I can't ever cross again."

Dracula looked at him with some hurt disappointment, yet it wasn't too surprising to him. Despite beginning to finally come out of her shell, the pain still linger with her as he could see it in her eyes. But he was patient, and more importantly a gentleman of noble birth and a proud ancient bloodline.

As a Vampire he waited a long while with Martha before they were married, and if he must he can wait for her, even for a thousand years.

He promised her they will take it slow, and as a Dracula he kept his word.

He gingerly held her chin between his long cool fingers, gave her a small yet loving smile as he said low and patiently to her,

"Of course. I understand completely, and I will court you for the rest of my immortal life if I have to."

She smiled appreciatively to him as he gave her a peck on the lips, then said,

"Now let's just enjoy ourselves before it's our turn to sing again."

This surprised Elona a bit as she said, "I was going to ask you about that."

Dracula just smiled at her as their drinks finally arrived.

For a short while they talked small talk or about little trivial things, often clinking their glasses of drinks and enjoying some monster style snacks.

Finally their turn for a duet karaoke came, and Dracula allowed her to pick a song they could sing together, and lucky for her he knew the song she picked well enough.

Dracula's family gave big smiles as they saw him and Elona get on stage again, Johnny got out his smart phone to record the duet together. Considering how amazing they were together in karaoke last time, he wanted to share this with friends and family back in California and across the world.

Just Give Me a Reason by Pink, featuring Nate Ruess

 _Elona:_

 _Right from the start/_

 _You were a thief, you stole my heart/_

 _And I your willing victim/_

 _I let you see the parts of me/_

 _That weren't all that pretty/_

 _And with every touch you fixed them/_

 _Now you've been talking in your sleep, oh, oh/_

 _Things you never say to me, oh, oh/_

 _Tell me that you've had a enough/_

 _Of our love, our love, our love/_

 _(Chorus)_

 _Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough/_

 _Just a second, we're not broken, just bent/_

 _And we can learn to love again/_

 _It's in the stars/_

 _It's been written in the scars of our hearts/_

 _We're not broken, just bent/_

 _And we can learn to love again/_

 _Dracula:_

 _I'm sorry, I don't understand/_

 _Where all of this is coming from/_

 _I thought that we were fine (Elona: Oh, we had everything)/_

 _Your head is running wild again/_

 _My dear, we still have everything/_

 _And it's all in your mind, (Elona: Yeah, but this is happening!)/_

 _You've been having real bad dreams/_

 _You used to lie so close to me, oh, oh/_

 _There's nothing more than empty sheets/_

 _Between our love, our love, oh our love, our love/_

 _(Both to the Chorus)_

 _Just give me a reason, just little bit's enough/_

 _Just a second we're not broken, just bent/_

 _And we can learn to love again/_

 _I never stopped, you're still written in the scars on my heart/_

 _You're not broken, just bent/_

 _And we can learn to love again._

 _D: Oh tear ducts and rust/_

 _E: I'll fix it for us/_

 _D: We're collecting dust/_

 _E: But our love's enough/_

 _D: You're holding it in/_

 _E: You're pouring a drink/_

 _D: No nothing's as bad as it seems/_

 _E: We'll come clean._

 _(Both to the Chorus)_

 _Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough/_

 _We're not broken just bent, and we can learn to love again/_

 _It's in the stars, it's been written in the scars on our hearts/_

 _That we're not broken, just bent/_

 _And we can learn to love again. (Repeat chorus 2X)_

 _Oh, we can learn to love again/ (Repeat 2X)_

 _Not broken, just bent/_

 _And we can learn to love again._

As the song neared it end, Dracula and Elona smiled widely as they put their arms around each other, Dracula's on Elona's waist and her arm up to his shoulders as they gently swayed like a light willow tree together in a soft breeze to the last of the music and looked deeply into each other's eyes.

The entire lounge just burst into applause, completely enthralled with the magic between the two, while Mavis just shed a little tear of happiness for her father and the new human woman he was falling in love with.

Finally, Dracula and Elona gently embraced more and kissed deeply and passionately, making the lounge guests applause and cheer louder for them.

Johnny finally stopped his recording and took a minute or two to upload the new video to all of his social media accounts, all while he had a big goofy grin up on his face while showing Dennis what he was doing for Papa Drac and Elona.

In a dark corner of the lounge, once more a pair of repulsed eyes watched them and just cringed inwardly at what she saw.

* * *

Esmeralda finally took her leave before Dracula's and Elona's singing was done and sneaked her way to the Count's office.

For now it was dark and quiet like a tomb, but Esmeralda used this to her advantage as it was unoccupied at the moment and she just needed to make a quiet and stealthy grab of what she needed while it's owner was pathetically distracted.

She squeezed her way through narrow and tight holes in the walls and under the crack of the door, making her way to Dracula's thick wooden desk.

Sniffing around, the little gray rat skittered through the office and quickly climbed up the desk, sniffing at locked drawers. She finally found the one with what she was looking for, but as it was locked she knew she couldn't force it open.

She struggled a bit as she squeezed her way through the tiny keyhole, giving straining squeaked grunts as she wiggled through and finally got into the drawer.

Picking the lock from the inside, Esmeralda finally got it loosened as she then struggled to push the drawer open to get out and make her way out of the office with her prize; Quasimodo's confiscated smart phone.

* * *

"I had a nice time," Elona said with a smile as she had to say good night, or rather good day to Dracula after he finally escorted her back to her suite.

"So did I," he said, finally getting the courage to give her another quick if passionate kiss on the lips, "I'll see you soon."

He finally gentlemanly opened the door for her and she said good-bye with deep blissful sigh.

The shrunken head on her door knob smiled wide at what he had overheard and said to himself,

"Mm-mm, those two are smokin' for each other."

Inside her room, Elona felt as though she were blissfully floating on air as she just wandered through her living room and sat down on the couch with a deep happy and blissful sigh.

If this wasn't really a first official date, she didn't know how it could be topped.

She just sat alone for a few minutes before deciding to get some rest when there came a rather loud knock at the door.

Wondering who it was at this hour and unsure if she should be mad or irritated, she opened the door to be pleasantly surprised to see Isadora.

"Hi, Isadora," Elona greeted with a polite and friendly smile.

"Hello, Miss Elona," she said with a curtsy, "His eminence wanted this delivered to you as soon as it was ready."

Elona saw the housekeeping witch presenting her with a wrapped package that seemed to be from a high fashion boutique. She took it from Isadora and hesitated for a moment as she said contritely,

"I'm sorry, Isadora, I don't have much for a tip right now."

"Quite alright, Miss Elona," Isadora said with another polite curtsy, then hopped onto her flying broom and said modestly, "Happy to do it. If you need anything else, I'm at your service."

She was then gone in a green mist fill blink of an eye as she flew down the hallway in a whoosh.

Elona closed her door as she looked curiously at her package and set to opening it, and as she unwrapped the tissue paper inside, she just gasped and smiled wide at the dress she saw.

She then read the card it came with and read:

 **-Elona,**

 **I had this made just for you for our first date. I hope you like it.**

 **Yours,**

 **Dracula.**

Elona's spirits just soured higher in this moment.

****Chicago, two days later

In her home office, Liz was taking a break from her work to try and relax her tired brain with entertaining junk on the internet, or look through her social media accounts to see what any of her friends or family had been up to.

She browsed through some of her favorite websites until something weird caught her eye, a simple recording someone had posted of two people singing karaoke together called 'Draculona Duet' which had oddly gone viral and was still getting more views.

Liz at first thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but the woman in the thumbnail of the video looked just like her sister, yet somehow different as she stood next to and had her arms around a man in an old fashion looking tuxedo and a cape. Out of simple curiosity she clicked the video to play and watched.

She found herself enjoying it, but was completely stunned and slack jawed as she realized it really was Elona singing with some rather handsome guy with a mysterious and fun charm to him somehow, and Liz found herself smiling at how happy her sister looked next to him and that same happiness radiated from him as well.

Yet after she watched the video once through, she also became worried for Elona and was unsure of something. Being a bit of an over protective sister for so many years, especially when it came to matters of the heart for Elona, Liz just had to be sure of something. So she called her husband, kids, and Sean to come watch the video again with her.

"Whoa, who's that guy she's singing with?" Sean asked as bit awe struck with something more than curiosity, "He's really good looking."

"Yes, he is, Sean, now settle down," Liz told him as they all watched the video again.

A few minutes later, the grown-ups gave some smiles as well as puzzled looks to each other while DJ and Ally smiled for their aunt.

"Mommy, is that Auntie Ellie's new boyfriend?" Ally asked with a happy innocence, "He looks nice."

"Yeah," DJ said with a growing smile, "He's got an awesome cape. I'll bet he's a superhero."

"I don't know, sweetie," Liz said, "Maybe, or it's just some guy she's singing with and they're friends. And no, Danny, superheroes are just fun pretend from comic books, people wear capes in real life for different reasons."

Daniel gave his wife a raised eyebrow as he asked, "Are you worried he might be some new douche bag that'll take advantage of her and she'll get hurt again? I don't know about you, Honey, but Elona looks really happy to me. Maybe this is that guy she told you about, you know the European Count and hotel manger she's met."

Liz gave the paused video another look as she saw a blissful smile on her sister's face and the tall darkly dressed man standing beside her and giving an equal if not deeper blissful smile in return.

She went through her thoughts and finally said, "Well, ever since she came out of her coma she has been looking happier than I've seen her in a long time whenever we've Skyped, and this Count looks like he really likes her, and I don't know, he does look like he has some really old school looking charm to him. Maybe it's that old fashion tux he's wearing, plus he does fit the description she told me really well."

"He's a Count," DJ mused with curiosity, "So he's like a king or something? Cool."

"Does that mean if Auntie Ellie marries him, she'll be a queen?" Ally asked with a growing smile and an adorable fairy tale imagination taking off as she asked with a squeak, "Does that mean I'll be a princess?"

Liz just laughed a bit as she kissed her daughter's forehead as she answered, "No, sweethearts, a Count isn't really a king, but yes I think he is some form of royalty, and you'll always be my princess, Ally."

Ally giggled at this as her big brother did a gagging sound.

Daniel finally suggested, "If you're worried about Ellie, darling, we could book a flight to Europe and go find her, see what she's really been up to this past year."

Liz just gave a sigh as she said with a reserved reluctance, "As much as I'd like to now, Dan, you know we can't because we don't have the money right now. Besides, Ellie made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone where she was because she wants to be alone."

Her kids gave saddened disappointed frowns like their mother was saying they were never to going to see their favorite aunt again. She gave a small smile she hoped would reassure them as she said,

"But that doesn't mean we won't see her again someday soon."

Everyone smiled at this, then Liz noticed Sean hadn't said anything for a while now.

"Are you okay, Sean?" Liz asked, "You've been awfully quiet."

Sean seemed to smirk at some personal joke as he said, "I'm just wondering if that dirt bag has seen this yet, 'cause I'll bet he'd just have a cow, or Mom and Dad."

"I'd be the first to pay money to see that," Liz smirked, "But you look like you were in deep thought there."

"I just can't help getting this feeling I've seen that guy somewhere before, but I can't remember or put my figure on it."

"We'll figure that out later," Daniel said as became stoic, "I'm wondering if we should talk to Stew and Maggie about this as well."

Sean just gave a bit of a glare as Liz just gave a bit of a sigh and said with a another reserved tone, "I think we should keep this to ourselves for now, Dan, because as long as Dad sides with that jackass about Ellie, I don't think there's any reasoning with them."

"Okay, darling," he agreed as he gave her a kiss on her forehead, "But we'll have to talk to them about this sooner rather than later."

"If you say so," Liz sighed, "I just hope Ellie knows what she's getting into, because even before that jackass she hasn't always had the best judgment or luck with men. I just hope this one is different."

The rest of the family agreed with some nods and then made their way to the kitchen to have dinner together.

****Hotel Transylvania, two weeks later

It was a crisp and clear Saturday night, the night two certain love struck people had been looking forward to for weeks, and now that it was finally here both began to get nervous swarms of butterflies or bats in their tummies, yet fluttered with growing excited anticipation.

Before at least 6:30pm during the day, Elona spent a little time with the girls at the spa to try and relax before her big date with Dracula. To make her feel better and even more fabulous for her date, Eunice redid Elona's nails while Gustav gave her a facial, a massage and some female zombie spa hair stylists did her hair, giving it a shampoo and done up in a braided bun.

Elona then got ready in her suite as she looked herself over in her new dress from Dracula, a beautiful fuchsia pink satin sleeveless dress with a simple pattern of flowers interwoven into it, and with a modestly deep V cut with an hourglass cut at the waist to contour and accentuate her figure, while the skirt flowed and stopped just above her knee, and she wore matching sharp toed flat shoes.

Looking herself over and over in a full body mirror for a while, even as she put on a modest look of make-up, she just felt she needed to look perfect and wasn't yet satisfied.

Meanwhile, Dracula did the same thing in front of a mirror in his chambers despite casting no reflection. He was feeling so nervous about this date he mixed up his clothes and put on a pajama top instead of a formal shirt as he couldn't really keep his mind on what to wear, or he tried restyling his hair and part it on one side but it just got must up so he kept it slicked back as usual.

He finally whirled in a billow of indigo mist to a more formal version of his usual tux and similar to the one he wore to his daughter's wedding years ago, a deep charcoal black with a pure white silk shirt, fuchsia vest and a black bow tie which he took a moment to straighten out with a couple of small tugs to tighten it.

But something for him was still missing, so after a moment of musing he waved his hand and a charcoal black top hat appeared which he proudly put on, and then he made a long black cane with a bronze bat atop it appear.

Feeling like he was finally prepared for a night on the town, Dracula made his way to Elona's suite so as not to be late, and he made it with at least two minutes to spare.

Although he stood with a gentlemanly poise and dignity, he had a swarm of ten thousand bats in his stomach as his mind raced with worry like he had forgotten something. He suddenly realized mere moments later he didn't have a bouquet of flowers or a corsage for Elona, so he knocked a few times on the door as he put a hand behind himself and made a few roses appear in his hand.

Behind the door Elona jumped at the knocking, knowing it was time. She took the knob as she took a deep breath and smiled to herself as she whispered nervously,

"It's gonna be great. It's just a date, just be yourself."

She finally opened the door with a big smile as her eyes went wide at seeing Dracula in a slightly different tux than what she was used to seeing him, and she felt like she was really dating a nobleman from European aristocracy with sophistication and class from the 19th century.

Dracula just went wide eyed as he saw her open the door, and he just gave a low sharp breath as he went wide eyed with a stunned silence as he smiled and said low,

"You look beautiful."

Elona's face blushed brighter behind her make-up as she smiled with flattery and said shyly, "Thank you, and you look…wow! Beautiful, too…I mean uh, for a guy…er, uh…really dashing. Oh, man…"

Dracula blushed as well as he gave a nervous chuckle saying, "Thank you. These are for you."

He presented the small bouquet of pink and red roses from behind himself to Elona and she just gave a small gasp as she took them and sniffed them lightly. He then presented his arm to her for her to take and they finally began down the hall and he escorted her to the rounded driveway where a hearse limo waited for them and the Headless Hearse Driver held the door for them in the back.

As they drove through the Haunted Forest, which the ride for Elona was smoother than she remembered when she first arrived at the hotel, Elona asked with nervous anticipation and curiosity as they went through the hidden tunnel,

"So, where are we going, Drac? What are we going to do on this date?"

Dracula just smiled as he said with a sly smile, "It's a surprise."

Elona couldn't help but smile at his sketchy secrecy, now eager and looking forward to whatever he had planned.

They soon arrived in the nearby town, and while many places had closed early, like with many moderately sized towns there were some places that were set to be opened late into the night, and one place was a high class Chinese restaurant called Madame Hua's, which had architecture resembling a traditional Chinese temple right down to graceful curves on the wide roof and the golden colored guardian lion statues flanking both sides of the entrance.

As Dracula escorted Elona out of the hearse she was wide eyed with awe at the beautiful building and was certain it was something far out of whatever she could ever afford in her life time as Dracula then explained to her,

"I made reservations some weeks ago, but I understand it's nearly impossible for most humans to get one. But, let's just say they made an exception for me."

Elona gave him a suspicious and curious look as they went in and were greeted by the tuxedoed maite'd, a handsome Asian middle aged man who gave a genteel smile to the new arrivals and gave a bow and greeted them,

"Welcome, do you have reservations?"

Dracula gave a nod as he said, "Two under the Count."

The maitre'd's eyes widened a bit as though he remembered something and gave a smile as he said, "Ah, yes, yes, we've been expecting you, Count. Please, right this way."

As their host led them through the immense and ornate dining room, Elona saw how it really pulled off its Chinese theme with beautiful tapestries painted on silk depicting scenes of Chinese history and perhaps old legends and folklore from the ancient and proud country; a stone fountain like a miniature waterfall quietly flowed with a graceful cascade of water near the entrance with a beautiful landscape painting of green mountains and rolling hills of the Chinese countryside above; above hung red and gold paper lanterns while scattered all around the deep polished wood of shelves and open walls were golden statues of Chinese dragons and Buddhist statues, alongside wide open fans with ornate Chinese writing, and all throughout the place came the aroma of delicious food such as sweet and sour chicken, orange shrimp, chow mein, and even a hint of egg rolls.

As Dracula and Elona walked through the large dining room, dozens of patrons looked up from their meals and actually waved and said hello to Dracula, to which he gave polite nods and a tip of his hat until the maitri'd finally brought them to a private round table with a deep red table cloth with images of golden dragons woven into its lining and a small flickering candle lighting the middle in a holder shaped like a lantern. The maitre'd held a dark wooden chair with more ornate and intricate designs carved into it and Elona took a seat as did Dracula as he hung his top hat on a nearby hook and sat next to Elona.

The maitre'd wished them well and to enjoy their dinner as a pretty female server came and gave them menus to order from as well as poured some water to drink.

"You seem pretty popular here," Elona commented as she browsed her menu.

"Pretty much the whole town loves me and my friends," Dracula just said with a shrug, "But tonight is just about the two of us."

He smiled to her and gently put a hand on hers, which she returned.

He ordered them some non-alcoholic drinks, which Elona frowned at a bit and tried reasonably to say, "Drac, you don't need to keep being over protective of me and what I eat or drink. Tonight's a special occasion, and you don't need to worry I took all my meds before we left. I can handle a small wine or a tiny bit of champagne."

Dracula seemed to think of this as his face frowned a bit, and he just said, "Maybe later, Elona, my d…uh, I, I want to try some of the food here first."

Elona gave a bit of a look and decided he may be right and so should take it slow for now.

She then asked a bit awkwardly and nervously, "So, is there anything you'd like to talk about?"

He gave a small smile as he said, "I don't know, what do you want to talk about?"

She sighed a bit as she said, "Well, I worry that all we have to talk about is the pain of the last people we were with, and usually a big rule for a first date is never to talk about that. So maybe we can try to avoid that for tonight."

"Yes," he agreed quietly with another small smile, "I'd rather talk about better things, like what you hope to do next."

Elona just gave a bit of a nervous shrug as she pressed her lips together, her mind racing a bit of what to say.

They soon gave their order and the food look delicious and too pretty to eat as it was brought on porcelain white square plates, and they were even given some tea to drink with their dinner and chopsticks to use.

Dracula looked over the odd utensils for a few moments, not quite sure what to make of them as he twiddled them between his long fingers and tapped them together a few times.

Elona gave a small chuckle as she watched him and said, "Haven't you ever used chopsticks before?"

"It's been a long time since I've been to China, or anywhere for that matter even before I built my hotel," Dracula admitted with some embarrassment.

Elona became curious and interested as she asked, "So, you've traveled before? I'd love to hear about it. But, first, let me show you how to properly hold those."

She tried to show him how to properly hold chopsticks between his fist two fingers and with his thumb, and when he tried to pick up some food with them he somehow managed to drop one.

"I'll get it," Elona offered a little over eagerly.

"No, Elona, it's fine, I'll get it," Dracula insisted.

But she was already looking around and searching on the floor for his dropped chopstick, feeling around on the floor for it and hoping it wasn't dirty already. She moved further under the table, mentally hoping no one was watching and ignoring Dracula's pleas to come back up.

She finally found it but nearly slipped out of her chair and grabbed something covered in cloth to keep from slipping further and heard a faint yelp, which startled her and she hit her head on the bottom of the table.

She straighten out quickly as she sat back up with an awkward tenseness as she placed the chopstick on the table and looked to where her hand was; right on Dracula's pants in a very personal area. She tensed more as she quickly removed her hand away and blushed a deep red while Dracula awkwardly tensed as well as he looked at her and blushed.

A thick silence passed between them for a long minute, neither saying anything nor knowing what to say.

Finally, as Elona straightening out a napkin in her lap she said with a bit of a choked voice, "Uh, we should just use the usual fork and knives."

"I suppose so," Dracula agreed with a quiet squeak, though he became a bit concerned as he asked, "You hit your head, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she stammered with embarrassment.

For a few long silent minutes, they said nothing to each other and just ate in peace, Elona's mind racing for her to say something as a tingle went up and down her spine while the swarm of butterflies seemed to increase by a thousand in her stomach, while Dracula pushed his food around on his plate and just stared at it with a tangible numbness to his being.

Finally mustering up some courage to say something, Elona spoke quietly, "I didn't mean to do that. We're both adults here, and we shouldn't let that ruin tonight."

Dracula took a nibble of noodles as he listened to Elona, blushing a bit as he tried to meet her eyes.

"No, we shouldn't," he said low as he cleared his throat, "I want this night to be perfect."

"So do I. But I admit I'm…so nervous…"

He gently placed a hand on hers again and gave an understanding smile as he said, "So am I. It's been a while for me, too, and I supposed it's also because I've never dated a human before and you never dated someone like me before."

She gave a small laugh as she said, "Yeah, I suppose so, but it shouldn't bother us because we're really not that different. But I admit, I've wondered what it's like for you, being you, you know."

Dracula seemed to know what she was trying to ask without sounding insulting, and falling rather short of her intent which just amused him. So he just said with amused patience,

"Well, you know Denisovich was a late fanger, and I guess it wasn't just because he's half human but he may have gotten it from me because I was a late fanger."

"A 'late fanger'?" Elona asked confused but curious.

Dracula smiled a bit for a moment, then it fell a bit as he told his story, "For most Vampires, we have to get fangs before the age of 5, otherwise we never really get our full powers. Just before I turned 5, I had a wonderful baby raccoon for a pet, her name was Lulu and she was my best friend. But my father wasn't so crazy about it, and so he did a spell he called his 'wussy exorcism' to bring out my fangs by possessing my lovable Lulu into a demon. Long story short, he frightened my fangs out of me by possessing something I loved so much because I found it so sweet and innocent."

His tone seemed to become bitter with some lingering sadness and anger, making Elona feel sorry for him but also a bit concerned and skittish as she thought she saw his eyes glow a faint red. He took a breath to calm down as he momentarily closed his eyes, and then smiled at her again as he said more calmly,

"But that was a long time ago, and I'm just happy my dad and I are talking again after so many centuries of not seeing each other."

Elona gave a bit of a smile, happy for Dracula and his father, though it brought bittersweet memories of her own family and how much she missed them as well as how much she was still angry and hurt by her own parents. But if she never saw them again, she will always try to remember the happier times.

"You're lucky," she said low, "It sounds like your dad was pretty cold and callous, though, kind of like mine after what happened to me."

He held her hand gently as he gave a sympathetic but encouraging smile.

"Maybe one day you'll see them again, and like my dad they'll learn how important you are to them and they were wrong."

"Maybe, I guess," Elona said with some doubt, "But for now I just want to move on, and I've finally accepted what's happened. For a long time I just brooded and whined about what happened to me, but now I think it's worked out for the best. I have new friends and a new place to stay, and I hope to start a new job with you soon."

She gave him a smile which made his widen a bit more as he said, "You will, but for now I want to talk about other things, like what you did or saw on your travels. You've mentioned them occasionally, but I want to know more, or what this Chicago is like where you're from."

Elona smiled a bit and told him a bit of what her home town was like, even a bit of her old job at the museum she worked at.

"My work could be tedious and boring sometimes, but I learned a lot and it just kept my passion for learning going and I had dreams of becoming a head of maybe the astronomy department or a curator for the museum, maybe even get a Ph.D. Of course, it wasn't always easy trying to decide what to major in because I have a lot of interests as you can see, but I loved what I did at the museum and I even went to a lot of them during my travels, even in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Greece, just to name a few. Did you know that the Greeks have a lot of different names and definitions for love?"

Dracula gave a bit of a raised eyebrow at this out of the blue question in the conversation, but he smiled a bit as he said charmingly,

"I think I recall that bit, would you care to tell me more?"

"Well," she blushed a bit bashfully, "Uh, _Philia_ is supposed to mean friendship and the love between close friends."

Dracula took her hand into his and gave a tender smile as he said, "And you've made plenty since coming to my hotel, and I know I count among them."

"Yeah," she breathed with a tingling shyness, "Um, and _Storge_ is supposed to mean the love between families."

"And despite getting on each other's nerves, especially with my grandson and his heritage or me and my own dad, I know we still care about each other and I think of all my friends as my extended family."

This made Elona smile more as she clasped Dracula's hand in hers more as well, said with a small growing confidence,

" _Agape_ means an all encompassing love or love and compassion for everyone around you, most monotheistic religions think of it as the love between God and man and altruism, or it might be like universal love and compassion taught in Buddhism. I suppose in a way it's what you showed building your hotel for the monsters of the world."

Dracula continued to smile, while Elona's faltered a bit as she said, " _Philautia_ is supposed to mean self love, being confident and happy with who you are, something I think I've been lacking for a while. It's like accepting and being comfortable with yourself, but not to the point of vanity or narcissism, you know?"

"Mm," Dracula hummed low, "I'm guilty of crossing that line, but when I learned the importance of others' needs, especially being a father I like to think experience has made me see things in a different way, and I'm a better person now."

"Yeah," Elona breathed with a smile as the fluttering in her stomach became a bit stronger and her eyes again locked with Dracula's, making the world around them fade away as their hands raised together, touching palm to palm, "And uh, _Ludus_ is playful love, kind of innocent enough like two kids just playing together, or flirting, and it could lead to something deeper."

She began to give short shallow breathes as her thoughts began to cloud over staring into Dracula's occult blue eyes; himself feeling light and hallow in her very presence, for she was becoming his true essence and most imperative reason for being in the deepest sense, not since Martha of whose soul may now reside within this mortal body.

"Yes," he simply whispered.

"And _Eros_ ," she nearly whispered, "means a more intimate romantic kind."

"Yes" Dracula said low, "Kind of like the god of love Cupid, but it's his Greek name. And if it's strong enough, it could lead to a deep everlasting and eternal love called _Pragma_."

"Eternal," Elona whisper, barely audible yet Dracula heard her as clear as a bell.

Their fingers intertwined as though two things had merged to become one, a connection deepening to as yet unfathomable and unseen depths. Elona's eyes momentarily glimpsed to their gentle grasp, seeing how truly alike and yet only minuscule different they truly were.

Surly, there had to be something infinite and eternally binding between them, timelessness with no bounds.

An unseen force began to draw them together again, something far stronger than both of them as they slowly closed their eyes as the distance closed between them as a small fire began to grow within them in sync. Their entwined fingers felt each other's pulses speed up to also become one, feeling each other's warmth as their hearts pounded within their chests as distant thunder.

Their faces were inches apart and coming closer together for a passionate kiss, and perhaps something more…

"Excuse me," a male voice said with an awkward politeness, making Elona and Dracula snap apart so hard at being startled they knocked a lot of their food onto their laps.

Dracula's eyes again briefly glowed a deep crimson as he tried to hold back a snarl as he said low and dangerously, "Yes?"

He and Elona looked to see a young man in perhaps his early twenties in a tux and with a high tech camera in his hands, now giving a tense finch as he saw their food spill over.

"Oh, my god!" he gasped with some guilt, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you guys like that."

Several servers, and even the restaurant manager, saw this and immediately set to quickly and efficiently cleaning off Dracula and Elona as the flustered manager stammered out,

"Richard, what have I told you about sneaking up on customers that way?! I'm so sorry, Your Grace, we'll replace your order immediately, and it's on the house."

Dracula gave a frowning glare to the manager and the restaurant photographer, who just stood frozen in place not knowing what to expect and seeming more afraid of his manager than the Vampire he disturbed.

"I'm sorry, sir, I can't help it sometimes," Richard stammered quickly.

Dracula held up a hand and everyone stopped their cleaning in an instant, then with a wave of his hand in blue mist everything was restored to near normal including his and Elona's formal attire being cleaned.

"It's quite alright," he tried to say with a tense if controlled calmness, "Now what do you want, so there aren't any more interruptions?"

The servers left to bring a new order for him and Elona while the manager glared at Richard as he said a bit timidly,

"I just want to ask if you and the lovely lady would like a souvenir photo, as it's my job here."

Dracula looked over to Elona as she just shrugged with a small smile seeing he was unsure of this. He shrugged a moment later and said,

"I suppose so, but from now on we want to be alone."

"Of course, Your Grace," the manager said genteelly if a bit submissively, "I'll be sure you and your lady friend are not bothered for the rest of the evening."

The manager left to attend to this as he gave a displeased look to the photographer. As Dracula and Elona leaned in close nearly touching cheek to cheek, both feeling a little flushed, and trying to give genuine smiles as Richard finally took a picture of them. He then told them with a bit more confidence,

"I'll have this developed for you tonight, folks. I also wanted to ask if it's alright to have your autograph, Count, sir, as I'm a huge fan, though the wolfman is a close second for me."

Dracula was still a bit perturbed about the whole interruption, but not to seem rude or ungrateful in front of Elona, he took a napkin and a pen and signed it for Richard.

"Thank you," he breathed with a growing excitement, but then eyed Elona as he asked with a not so subtle flirtatiousness, "And what will a beautiful girl like yourself be doing after dinner tonight? Perhaps you'd like get a drink afterwards."

Elona just gave a glare of annoyance at the photographer, showing she wasn't interested while hardly noticing Dracula was trying with limited success to hold back a growl of clear jealousy as his nails grew as he gripped the table cloth hard enough to leave holes.

Richard just took a half step back as he cleared his throat and stammered more courteously with some nervousness,

"I'll, uh, have this ready for you soon."

He finally left, allowing Dracula to take another deep breath through his nose to calm down as Elona looked at him calmly if a bit worriedly.

"Are you going to be okay, Drac?" she asked quietly and patiently.

He tried to smile reassuringly as he said, "Of course, Elona, I'll be fine. It's just this dinner hasn't gone quite as I had hoped it would, and that human almost made me want to…"

He went silent, but Elona knew why he didn't finish his sentence.

"I know," she said with a small smile of her own, "He made me want to yell at him, too, but I didn't want to cause a scene or seem rude."

They both gave nervous chuckles as their new course finally arrived. As they set to eating again, Elona suggested,

"Richard did have one good idea. Though, I know I need to be careful with what I eat and drink I wouldn't mind going out for some drinks tonight. Just a little bit because it's a special occasion and I rarely drink alcohol anyway. So what do you say, Drac, maybe we could have some champaign or a bit of wine tonight? I promise I'll be careful and you don't need to be so protective of me."

He gave this a though for a long moment as he felt unsure of the suggestion and still wanted to protect her and keep her healthy and safe, but maybe just for tonight he could make an exception.

"Alright," he said with a smile, "But not until later tonight, as I still hope to make this a wonderful date for you and I have more planned for this evening."

"Really," Elona said intrigued, "Like what?"

"I have tickets to a play."

Elona's smile widened as he told her this, but he wanted to keep what they were going to see a surprise.

The rest of their dinner was finally quiet and undisturbed as they wanted it to be. Just sitting together and enjoying each other's company and talking about small trivial and sometimes nonsensical subjects, yet somehow Dracula made them seem so romantic and funny as he made Elona laugh with his signature snarky sarcasm.

One comment he said to her, "Sometimes I don't which is worse to deal with, an angry mob with torches and pitchforks or overly excitable fans demanding an autograph or a selfie picture, or even the ones with their flashy cameras called the pepperoni."

"I think you mean paparazzi," Elona laughed.

"Whatever," Dracula dismissed, "But I admit, I'd rather deal with crazy fans than an angry mob out for my destruction because at least fans look up to us in some weird way, and it's all I really wanted."

Elona smiled to him.

As they finally finished their dinner, one of the serves offered a menu of desserts and they too would be on the house if Dracula so wished. He politely declined, which at first disappointed Elona, but where they were going he heard already had a selection of desserts and sweets for the show. So he insisted on paying and even left a modest if generous enough tip for the servers and manager, though he did tell the manager to better train his photographer, because if he worked at the hotel Dracula would fire him on the spot.

Before leaving, they enjoyed their fortune cookies and read their fortune to each other.

 _"Love is something you find in every lifetime"_ Elona's fortune said.

 _"In darkness there is light, let it shine bright"_ Dracula's fortune said.

They hung onto these inspirational messages as Dracula put them into an inside vest pocket and made their way out Madame Hua's and an envelope with their picture was handed to them; one picture unsurprisingly, Dracula didn't show up it while another was digital and showed both Elona and Dracula smiling with their arms around each other. They courteously said good night to the maitri'd as they went out into the cool crisp air of the night.

Elona thought they needed to call a cab or the hearse again, but the theatre they were going to wasn't too far away and Dracula insisted they take a nice quiet stroll through the town and enjoy the crisp night air arm in arm.

For a few minutes they walked down the street in quiet companionship passing other people who walked down the street, most even recognizing Dracula and giving hellos again to which he returned with a hello and a tip of his hat.

As they made their way along the street, a rather unsavory looking group of six rough looking men walked in the opposite direction towards them. Elona held a little closer to Dracula's arm as they made her nervous for some reason and she just hoped they would pass on by. She focused on the street ahead of them and concentrated on not making eye contact with any of them as most of the men just eyed them with a bit of curiosity or a bit of disinterest.

As they finally passed each other Elona gave a bit of a deep breath to calm down and slow her racing heart, not noticing the small gang had stopped and eyed them more closely as they gave each other intrigued but wicked smirks.

"'Scuse me, mister," the most burly looking one dressed in ripped denim vest, jeans, and leather boots said, making Dracula roll his eyes again and turn to face another admirer.

"Yes, if you want a picture, please make it quick," he said, "We are on our way to a play, and I don't want to be late."

The other five men just laughed as their supposed leader said with less than good intent, "Oh, no I don't wants a picture, sir, I was hopin' you could helps me and my friends with a little money troubles as we're a little shorts for a party we're goin' to."

Dracula just gave a raised eyebrow to this as Elona held a little tighter to his arm.

"You two looks like youse ready for a party, too," one of the other thugs said as he approached Elona too closely, "This is a fine, fine lookin' chick with you, Mr. Top Hat, maybe she'd like to join us."

He sniffed at Elona's hair too closely, making her flinch a bit as she gave him a bit of a fearful but growing hot glare.

"Excuse me, a little personal space, please," she said hard with some mustered boldness.

"Ooh, she gots spirit," the sniffer mocked.

They began to brandish weapons such as steel knuckles, one or two had stiletto knives, and the burly looking leader drew a gun.

"C'mon, Top Hat, this is a party," the leader proclaimed, "Although, what's with the ol' school threads, ya goin' to a costume party? Just hand over your wallet, and nobody gets hurts."

Elona looked up at Dracula, waiting for him to do as the lead thug said, but he just rolled his eyes as he said with clear irritation,

"Are you kidding me? Some things never change with you humans, do they? Still gangs of hooligans out on a beautiful night just to rob and steal from those who appear weaker than you, it's pathetic. Well, too bad, sweethearts, that's not gonna happen. Leave us alone, or I will be forced to hurt you."

The thugs just laughed at Dracula, making Elona glare at them but also smirk a bit at how stupid they must really be. She didn't notice the sniffer was closer to her now until she felt his dirtied hand on her shoulder and yanked her hard from Dracula, making her give a startled yelp as he suddenly put his thick arm around her neck as though to choke her and held up his metallic knuckles to near her face as he declared with a roughened voice,

"Maybe the chick would likes to party wit' us. C'mon, sweet cheeks, hand over yours purse and maybe we'll takes it easy on youse and your caped boyfriend, capishe?"

"Drac!" she cried.

As Elona struggled against her would be captor, Dracula whirled to them as he yelled with a growing hot anger,

"Get your filthy hands off her, you damn human!"

He was about to come to Elona's rescue but the five remaining thugs piled upon him, but with his superior Vampire strength he flexed his muscles and threw them off of himself as Elona simultaneously stomped onto her captor's foot so hard she may have cracked a bone and made him yelp and cry in surprised pain. She then elbowed him in the gut, kneed him in the groin and hit his nose with the palm of her hand; all part of a defense class she learned before leaving Chicago, as it was a dangerous city at times and in certain neighborhoods.

This actually made Dracula smile for a brief moment, but the thug was still tougher as he tried to shrug off the brief pain of the places she hit and he yelled with a growing seething anger as he snarled,

"You damn stupid bitch! I'm gonna fuck you up so bad!"

He tried to land a punch to her but Elona managed to dodge it with quick reflexes, but she wasn't quick enough to keep the thug from grabbing her by an arm and throwing her against a wall and making her slide down as she groaned in pain.

"Elona!" Dracula cried with worried fear, but his eyes suddenly glowed red as he felt a hot anger growing in his chest and he began to give a dangerous low snarl.

The next moment the crooks tried to dog pile upon him again, making his knees buckle for a few long seconds. But as the growing rage burned within him, it gave him a surge of super strength to allow him to again throw the assaulting thugs off of himself as he gave a fierce and dangerous roar as his eyes glowed deep crimson and his face turned ghostly white and more skull like again; dark blue mist surrounded his figure as his claws grew sharp and deadly.

"Oh, shit!" one of the thugs yelled as they took a couple of steps back in fear, "That guy's some kinda Vampire!"

"Get 'im!" one of the others shouted, rallying his comrades to attack Dracula.

They all tried to ambush Dracula as they gave battle yells, but Dracula just gave a dangerous snarl as he easily back handed four of the thugs to send them flying back hard several feet, knocking one of them unconscious as he hit the stone paved street with hard bodily thumps while another groaned in pain as his head swam with a small concussion, but the third shook off his pain and joined with his leader and the other two for another attack on the enraged Dracula.

However the forth one gathered himself up as he stammered with a cowardly mumble, "Screw this, I'm outta here."

He began to limp away as the burly leader yelled at him, "Get back here, ya damn coward! You'll fuckin' regret ditchin' us!"

The leader then just waved the deserter off as he aimed his gun as the still vulnerable Elona while Dracula tossed the last remaining thug aside as he tried to stab him, but the steel knife just went through him like he was smoke.

For Dracula, it seemed to happen in slow motion as he saw the bright scarlet glow of the lead thug's body heat as he aimed a weapon at his mate, and it gave off a loud but brief crack of thunder as his version saw a deadly projectile head for his mate as it left a faint wispy trail of smoke behind it.

Elona only heard the gunshot, but the next half second Dracula's dark misted form was right in front of her taking the shot and never letting it even touch her. It took her mind a long second to realize what just happened and just froze with shock behind Dracula as he gave a deadly growl at the lead thug and his face twisted more with anger.

Something seemed to change in the lead thugs brain as a primal ancient fear over took him as he saw what Dracula just did, making his entire body begin to quiver with fear and go wide eyed as the very air around them became several degrees colder.

He gave an incoherent mumble as he dropped his gun and seeing this deadly unnatural creature he dared to challenge eye him with a growing hatred, and something more primal. He took one quiet step back from Dracula as he tried to mumble,

"Okay, t-take it easy, man…I-I d-didn't mean…d-d-didn't know y-y-you were…Oh, Shit! Stay away from me!"

He turned and bolted away down the dark street, but this was a big mistake as it just enticed the now nearly feral Vampire as he eyed the thug as fleeing prey, and he the predator being lead on an exciting chase.

The thug became a silhouette in the dark street, but Dracula followed a half second later to literally blend with the shadows as he gave chase, leaving a stunned Elona behind.

The thug ran down a side alley, not really knowing where he was going but only thought of escape, only to find to his detriment he had run into an alley with a dead end making him give a defeated whimpering cry as he realized his mistake.

Seeing no way out, he would have turned around to go back the way he had come, but the air became cold again to make him shiver and he stopped in his tracks as he saw the pitch black silhouette of Dracula coming down the alley in a glide with a quiet yet sinister whoosh of air around him as his eyes glowed like red fire from the depth of Hell.

As Dracula got closer to the last thug, he began to beg with a stutter, "P-please, Mr. Vampire, me and my friends d-didn't m-mean anythings…I-I mean we d-didn't kn-now…"

Dracula just gave a hiss like a snake as he cornered the cowering burly human, silencing him from his begging as the thug just continued to quiver with growing fear.

"You should've left us alone," Dracula said low with a dangerous tone, a deep dark otherworldly echo reverberated from his voice as he spoke.

The thug whimpered low as he tried to give a small cowering smile, stuttering low, "Th-the guys, and m-me, w-we w-were just…we didn't kn-now, aack!..."

Dracula's cold hand was suddenly around his neck, choking him as Dracula said, "I thought humans had changed, but you're obviously a rare exception."

"P-please," the crook begged again, "Don't…don't…what're ya gonna do to me?"

"Protecting what's mine," Dracula said low, "Maybe I've been stupid, and it's been a long time…"

The thug's eyes widened a bit more to near the size of saucers, not liking what the Vampire might be hinting about.

He gave a sinister smile as he said low, "I don't want to ruin my appetite, I am still on a date, y'know, but I am feeling a little thirsty…"

The thug struggle and whimpered more in Dracula's grip as he saw his mouth open wide and his fangs grow longer.

The next moment, there was a faint crunch.

Back on the dark street, Elona picked herself up and tried to move and stretch out aching muscles from her pain from hitting the wall, worrying about Dracula and what he might do.

She flinched a bit as she briefly heard a blood curdling scream, but it was gone the next second as there came silence. She stared in silence in the direction the lead thug and Dracula had disappeared down, her mind racing yet numb.

She finally got her thoughts together as she quietly called out, "Drac! Drac, where are you?"

She finally heard footsteps coming toward her, and they were familiar. Dracula finally emerges from the darkness, wiping off his face and making disgusted groans to himself. As he saw Elona, he ran up to her as he cried,

"Elona, my darling, are you alright?"

For a moment she didn't seem to register what he said as she eyed him up and down with some numbed shock. He saw how she looked at him, making him hesitate to come closer to her as he said gently,

"Elona, it's me. They tried to hurt you, are you okay?"

"I…I think so," she said quietly, "Just sore, and I'll probably be bruised a little. Drac…did you…?"

She couldn't bring herself to finish the question, but he knew what she was wondering by the worried look on her face.

He slowly and gently put a hand to her cheek, and it reassured him she didn't try to pull away or flinch at his touch.

"They almost…they tried to hurt you, and I just…"he tried to explain, finding it difficult to word his thoughts, but he took a breath as he reassured her, "No, he lives, just weakened. But it wasn't easy…trying to hold back…I almost let it control me again. But, it tasted…off…ashy, fatty…uggh!"

He quivered to himself a bit, to which Elona gave a small laugh as he finished, "I'm reminded why I switched to a substitute in the first place a century and half ago."

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked quietly.

He just gave her a raised eyebrow as he said, "Of course, I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you, will you be okay? Do you want to go back to the hotel?"

Elona seemed unsure of this, but she began to gather her thoughts again as she remembered all the trouble he went through and the wonderful time they were having now.

"No, but we should call the police," she suggested.

"I already did," he said as he showed her his phone, and he looked at the time, "We still have a few minutes, and can still make it for the late night matinee."

They were arm in arm again as they walked down the street again, almost as though none of it happened.

Elona said quietly, "It's so easy to forget who you really are."

Dracula didn't know what to say to this as he just gave a bit of a dropped look to her as she said, "Well, maybe that's a good thing, because you know this but you're so much better because of it. It shows I can and have done the same thing."

They gave each other smiles at this as Elona then asked with curiosity, "I've been curious for a while now, what made you lose your taste for real human blood anyway? Or where do you get your blood substitute?"

Dracula seemed hesitant to answer this as he said slowly, "That's something that's really personal, and maybe can be talked about later. I just want to enjoy what's left for the evening and be with you."

"Okay," Elona conceded, but then gave him a bit of dirty but amused look as she asked, "Did you just call me 'darling'?"

He gave an awkward laughed he tried to play it off, "What? No, no, I said eh…uh…"

She just looked at him with a bit of glare, showing she wasn't fooled, then laughed a bit as she said, "It was nice, would you mind if I called you Dracy-pooh?"

She gave an overly sweet and cute tone at the last two words as she batted her eyes, making Dracula give a groaning laugh, "Please, no way, don't get me started on that?"

"Okay," she teased, "but do you have any other pet names for me?"

"Maybe, Honeybat, or Sweetie Fang, I call Mavy those all the time when she was growing up…" he went silent for a moment as she gave him a bit of teased disgusted look, making him stammer a bit, "Or, or, uh… just Honey, or how about Beloved, or My Love?"

She just laughed as she said, "Those are all nice, but you're so cheesy, too."

They laughed together.

They made it to the theatre with a bit time to spare and got to their seats, up front in the center row at the Mezzanine level, giving them both a breathtaking view of the classic Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet.

The presentation turned out to be a wondrous spectacle, yet its spirit still moved the audience to tears, especially Elona as she just loved this tragic love story.

During intermission and after the show, just for the occasion Dracula allowed him and Elona to enjoy a few drinks of wine and delicious confectionary treats, which featured a variety of chocolates and many sugared pastries like cream puffs or strawberry tarts, served for the audience guests.

At one point Elona noticed him trying to subtly pour a dark red liquid from a vial into his drink, which he explained was his emergency blood substitute.

Elona just shrugged at this as she finished off her third glass of wine for the night.

It was getting late, and they both were having a wonderful time, but it was getting time to leave as they were getting a bit tipsy. So some theatre attendants helped them, as well as many other intoxicated guests, outside to call them cabs to take them home or made sure a sober member of their party was with them to drive them home.

"I-I don't need a cab call… _hic,_ " Dracula refused as the valet offered assistance to him and his date, "I…I already gots my own."

He gave a really loud whistle through his fingers, and the next moment the hearse limo was there coming to a sudden stop as its tires squealed on the pavement.

They gave awkward laughs as the Headless Hearse Driver helped them inside, then his master ordered them with a bit of a slurred tone, "Heady, back to the hotel, and step on it… _Hah, hah, hic…_ "

And the hearse shot forward like a bat out of Hades out of town and into the Haunted Forest.

"I want you," Elona said, feeling a growing need she had been trying to suppress all night, "I want you to take me."

"And why do you want to do that, My Love?" Dracula mused.

"So you can do whatever you want with me!" she replied, followed by a hiccup.

Dracula froze at this, not quite sure what to think as he remembered what they had talked about before. Yet his desire for her just grew and he just couldn't resist any longer.

He got a devious expression on his face as he ran his long fingers through Elona's long hair. Lowering his face to hover barely an inch above her own, he whispered, "You know I'd like that very much."

Closing the distance between them, Dracula extended his tongue and dragged it across Elona's lips, savoring the taste of her skin against his far more than the drink itself, as he collected every last drop of wine. Elona's body tingled in an excited arousal at the touch of the vampire's cold tongue sliding across her skin, making her give a faint moan and her desire for him grow even more.

Craving for her lips, Dracula leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. Both of their mouths opened enough for their tongues to entangle as Dracula took in the taste of both the wine and Elona as she wrapped her arms around his long neck.

Elona climbed into Dracula's lap, her dress riding up as she mounted him like a cowgirl. With one hand Dracula pulled Elona closer, drawing her deeper as their lips delved and retracted, tongues exploring one another, and eyes half closed in an intoxicating passion. His free hand ventured beneath the dress and pushed aside her bra, cupping her immense breasts.

With the rhythmic bouncing of the hearse driving down the forest road, Elona rose and fell atop on his lap as the stirring in their loins climbed higher and higher.

At last, Dracula could take no more.

He wanted Elona. He craved for Elona. He lusted for Elona.

Grabbing Elona's legs, he raised them to the hearse's ceiling and reclined her against his lap and on the seat as he pulled her underwear off her legs and tossed it over in the back seat. When he took sight of her crotch, Dracula's eyes grew so large people would think they'd burst.

Smirking, Elona traced the outline of his hardened member inside his pants as she lowered her body to rest on the seat, her gaze angled upwards to meet his eyes. She was so drunk that she wanted him so badly as much as he wanted her. Her hand began to tug at the zipper of his pants.

Dracula's hardened cock shot out from his boxers and even in her drunken state, Elona gazed straight at the vampire's dick in deep shock.

Good grief, he's so big! But, on second thought who cares? Tonight, she will belong to Dracula forever.

"Are you ready to take me?" Elona asked, teasingly.

"Holy rabies, yes!" Dracula replied in an excited drunken stupor, his eyes sparkled with anticipation as the hearse propelled their bodies closer and closer to one another.

They became consumed in an all encompassing make out kiss again, preparing themselves for what was to come, but the next thing they knew someone shouted,

"Welcome back, guys! I hope you had a…Oh, my God and Holy freakin' Rabies! What the hell are you two doin'?!"

They broke their make out as they gave cries and yelps, trying to save their dignity and keep whoever it was from seeing what they were about to do. Dracula looked to the open hearse door to see Johnny greeting them in the driveway, with Mavis holding Dennis near him, and through his blurred drunken vision Dracula could barely make out Johnny's parents and three young nephews upon the hotel stairs as Linda tried to cover the young boys' innocent eyes.

Dracula gave a snarl as he asked hotly, "What are you doing, Jonathan? You just ruined a…"

"I-I was just…I mean my family came for a surprise visit…a-and we wanted to surprise you when you and Elona got back, but uh, this obviously wasn't a good time, so uh…oh, boy…" Johnny stammered on as he tried to explain, but clearly Dracula was too drunk to listen as he gave an angered enraged cry and flew out at Johnny in a drunken madness, frustrated at having his moment with Elona ruined.

Luckily Johnny saw this in time and ducked away with quick reflexes from Dracula's grasp to hear the poor drunken Vampire fly over him and hit one of the old gnarled trees flanking the hotel entrance. Everyone saw Dracula with his arms out and his cape blanketing him as he slip down with a faint groan as he slid down the tree.

While the boys, Dennis, Troy, Connor, and Parker all laughed at this, Johnny, Mavis, Linda, and Mike just flinched and looked on him in sympathy.

However, Elona, too tipsy to really understand what just happened and just laughed at poor Dracula's predicament for a minute as she tried to straighten out her dress. But then the next minute, she began to feel queasy as she became dizzy and her vision blurred over. Then gradually a pain grew with her abdomen and grew worse, overcoming her like a sudden wave.

She gave a loud pained moan as she tried to fight it off, but it was too much.

This seemed to snap Dracula back to his present situation and become a bit more sober.

"Elona," he called to her, and was by her side in a flash of indigo mist and a faint zip of his pants as he looked her over and became deeply worried at how she was clenching herself into a fetal position and groaning in pain.

"I…I don't feel so good," she moaned weakly as she looked at him with eyes becoming bloodshot as a paleness came to her face.

Becoming more and more worried, Dracula gathered Elona into his arms and flew into the hotel with all of his family and in-laws watching in silence.

Unbeknownst to Elona and Dracula, a certain little gray rat had been hiding in their hearse the entire time they were on their date, recording what was going on.

While Esmeralda only got what happened at the beginning before Elona and Dracula left, and near the end what had happened just now, it wasn't much but she became certain her master and friend will be incredibly please with these last few minutes she recorded with Quasimodo's camera phone.

This might finally be enough to really discredit and humiliate Dracula, and finally make him see Quasimodo was right all along.

* * *

 **I want to thank all who have read my Hotel Transylvania story this far, and I hope it's enjoyed to the end. I honestly didn't think it would get to be this long.**

 **I also have now past over 9 thousand views/reads of this story and I'm just so humbled.**

 **Please continue to leave your thoughts, critiques, and reviews because they encourage me to continue writing.**

 **Also, I'm thinking about changing my author name and want to throw out some ideas, and you can leave your votes to me in the reviews or in my PM.**

 **1) Imagina Sparx, 2) Cosmina Sparx, 3) Figmentina, or 4) Cosmina Inspira.**

 **Thank you, everyone!**

 **Also, a big thank you to Gotham317 for all their input and help! :)**


	22. Because This is Wrong!

Because This is WRONG!

Deep in the bowels of the Hotel Transylvania tunnels, Quasimodo first gave a repulsed and disgusted sneer at the image Esmeralda had recorded for him, his insides turning in squeamish repugnance. It then turned into a wicked and smug sneer as he set to 'uploading' the recording.

****The next morning, before sunrise

In the master bedroom of Elona's suit, Dracula sat in a chair by the bed side as he watched and waited with agonizing tense worry for Dr. Simon to check over his beloved Elona, whom he could hear giving faint pained moans.

Dr. Simon had been called to the hotel in the middle of the night from his home at Dracula's insistence, and rushed over as fast as a hotel hearse could bring him. The human doctor gently put a cool cloth over her feverish forehead as he checked her over. When it looked like he had finally finished checking her over, he put his stethoscope over his neck and wrote something down in a personal notebook, Dracula quickly stood up as he asked with a tensely held breath,

"Well, Doctor, how is she? Is she going to be okay? Will she slip into another coma again?"

The last part really scared him, but Dr. Simon tried to reassure him, "No, she won't, she's just very weak and in a lot of pain, most likely due to too much alcohol consumption. Her condition weakens her liver, which in a nutshell keeps the human body healthy and clean of unhealthy substances, as well as aiding in digestion, decomposition of red blood cells, hormone production, and quite a few other necessary functions I could give a six hour lecture on. Right now her body is having a difficult time digesting and processing the whine she drank."

Dracula gave a bit of a dropped expression as guilt came over him.

"What can I do?" Dracula asked with controlled desperation.

"Right now, she just needs plenty of bed rest and to drink lots of water, as well as to take her usual medicines right now and as often possible."

He wrote down something on some paper and gave it to Dracula as the doctor said, "A new prescription I'll have prepared ASAP and delivered right away. Call me if there's any change, if she gets better or worse."

Dracula gave a blank look as though he wasn't sure to feel relieved or worse, so he just thanked Dr. Simon and had a suit of armor guard escort him to the driveway.

He then kneeled by Elona's side at the bed, his face looking forlorn as he gently caressed her forehead to her cheek with such a feather light touch. His face came closer to her face to touch his forehead to hers as he gently whispered,

"Everything's going to be alright, My Love. I know this is all my fault, and I'm so sorry. Again, I promise I will do all I can to help you, even cure you, because no matter how many times you get sick I will never abandon you. I will always be there for you."

For a moment he thought he heard her try to say his name in a weak feeble whisper, and though she seemed unaware of his presence at the moment it brought a small smile to his face.

He stayed with her for the day and into the next night, yet not to neglect his duties and work to the hotel he had Mavis and Johnny keep him posted about anything important and only have him handle any emergencies they couldn't, and he would have Isadora watch over Elona.

Yet like before, he never wanted to leave her side and hoped she knew she wasn't alone.

As he went though another eternity of waiting, Dracula was silently grateful it wasn't quite as agonizing or frustrating as it was when she was in a coma, and this time he tried not to push anyone away so much or neglect his own needs.

He even again considered biting her as a means of curing her, but he held back as something told him she wouldn't be happy about it even if he had good intentions.

As the day passed, he quietly talked with Elona as she slept or stirred from light slumber, encouraging her to be strong and sometimes even about whatever was on his mind. Most of the time she just slept through his talking, or he just heard her usual low and nearly inaudible mumbles or moans.

Finally, hours into the next night as he twiddled a reddish pink jewel and the prescription paper from the doctor between his fingers, he heard a voice weakly say,

"Dracula."

In a faint whoosh, he was by Elona's bedside as he gave a relieved sigh and smile as he said gently,

"Elona, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?"

"…nnn…" she moaned in misery as she squeezed her eyes tightly and held her pounding head, "Ohh, my head. Terrible. What happened?"

Dracula seemed to hesitate to respond for a moment, but tried to explain, "You had too much wine, and it made you sick." He became more serious, even though he held her hand. "I knew I shouldn't have let you have so much. From now on, no more alcohol for you."

Elona tried to give him an annoyed look at his over controlling nature, but she just pulled the blanket over her face as she moaned,

"Maybe you're right. Next time, let's just go out for pizza and a movie."

Dracula's face dropped a bit in confusion and some hurt, as he asked, "Didn't you have a nice time?"

Elona tried to smile as she lowered the blanket to show her face, "Yeah, of course I did. But I don't remember much near the end, though, it's all fuzzy. I don't even know how I got here, but I vaguely had this dream that we…"

Dracula's face seemed to turn pink as Elona's fuzzy memories cleared a bit, making her cringe as she groaned, "Oh, no. Oh, my god, it wasn't a dream, was it? Please don't tell me we…"

"Nothing happened," he said quickly as his own face flushed pink, seeing hers flush from embarrassment more than her tiredness.

"But I thought we agreed…" she began with another moan.

"Shhh," he hushed her as he gently and lightly touched her lips with the tip of his long finger, "You need rest now. But first, you have to take your pills, no arguing."

He poured some healthy tomato juice into a glass as he helped her to swallow several pills, which she took begrudgingly.

****Chicago, day time on the other side of the world

Daniel put glasses of water on the dining room table as he set it for his entire family and several guests, his in-laws as well several old friends Liz knew back from high school, the once tight group of Elona's friends.

In the kitchen, Liz prepared a nearly grand culinary gourmet dinner of maple glazed chicken, twice baked potatoes, and green bean casserole, while Sean made deviled eggs, a mixed tossed salad, and a wet stuffing and the kids helped to separate rolls from a can and onto a baking pan while their mother also tried to dissuade them from trying to taste raw chocolate chip cookie dough with little success.

The guests of honor had arrived a few minutes earlier, Gwen and Lucas, along with their six-year-old fraternal twins Chloe and Oliver to celebrate their Wedding Renewal Anniversary. Their friends, Hector and Kelly had arrived a few minutes later bringing sodas, beer, and snacks while Hector brought fruit salad and a veggie snack wheel with dips.

Gwen was an attractive woman with olive tan skin and dark hair showing she may be of Latin American descent with a healthy figure, while her husband Lucas was a handsome man of German descent and stood at a tall height of 6ft 6in and still had a robust build of playing many years of basketball, and just made him more intimidating and effective as a college basketball coach.

Kelly was more of mixed blood with deep light cocoa brown skin and black hair cut short and nearly cropped to her head, as she was half African American mixed with Hispanic and European descent, and a healthy muscular female build as though from several years fighting on the tough streets of Chicago, and her dark eyes showed the soul of a lioness with a tough no nonsense attitude with fierce independence, yet behind it was a strong loyalty, idealism, and boundless compassion.

Hector was of Polish Jewish descent with a light to medium brownish hair parted on his right side, stood at 5ft 8in and also had a healthy if wiry build to him, a sweet if average rounded face with teeth showing he once had braces.

While the grown-ups mostly enjoyed chatting and enjoying drinks together, the four kids played out in the yard; AJ and Ally, along with Lucas and Gwen's twins, Oliver and Chloe.

"It all smells delicious, Liz," Kelly called to Liz in the kitchen.

"Thanks, dinner's almost ready, everybody," Liz called back out, "We're just waiting for my folks to show up. I hope you don't mind me inviting them, Gwen."

"No, we don't mind," Gwen told Liz, "They're nice enough and I know they mean well."

"Well, everyone is practically family," Liz said as she set some food upon the dining room table, "And you all know how my parents practically preach about it, plus they say a traditional family dinner is a dying one, but I think they're exaggerating a bit as they tend to do."

"That's not all they exaggerate," Sean mumbled, but Liz gave him a hard look.

"I just wish Ellie was here," Kelly said with a bittersweet smile, "Then the whole gang could be here again."

"Wherever she is," Hector said with a bit of a sad frown, "I hope she's okay."

The others gave some gave low consents or nods, all aware how much they missed someone special to them.

There then came a ring from the door bell, Liz quipped, "Speak of the devil. Dan, Honey, could you get the door."

Her husband went to open the door and gave a friendly greeting to his in-laws, but his smile dropped as he saw who was with them; Jason.

"Hello, Daniel," Stewart greeted with a hand shake and a man hug to his son-in-law, "Thanks for inviting us."

Maggie gave him a kiss on the cheek and a hug, and while he returned the gestures he then tried to stop Jason from coming into his house as he put his hand onto Jason's muscular chest.

"This is a celebration for family," he said sternly to the ex of his younger sister-in-law, "Why are you here?"

Jason seemed to give a stone hard look, then a raised eyebrow in confusion as Daniel stared coldly at him.

Jason then took a deep breath to stay calm as though trying to hold in some resentment as he said, "Stew thought this would be a good time to talk face to face again. I know I behaved…inappropriately last time, and I should apologize." Daniel gave an unconvinced look to this. "So, I'm sorry for how I acted, and Stew and Maggie made me see that and I want to make amends."

He showed Daniel his piece offering, a box with a cake inside it.

Jason gave a smile, which looked overly smug to Daniel, as he said, "Something for the love birds' anniversary. And besides, I am considered family."

Daniel continued to give a cold glare to the other man, but not to seem rude and maybe give Jason the benefit of the doubt he allowed Jason in.

They then both made their way to the family room, where everyone else went nearly dead silent to the point of hearing a pin drop.

"Hey, everyone," he greeted with his most charming smile and a friendly wave, which was only returned with one or two smaller waves and mumbles.

Liz just gave him a hot glare as she asked low in a heated tone and through gritted teeth, "What are you doing here, Spencer?"

His smile waivered a bit as he prepared to speak, but Daniel jumped in, "He's here to 'apologize', and he's 'considered' family."

Liz's eyes narrowed and her posture stiffened more as she looked as though she was about to yell when Stew jumped in to avoid a possible argument,

"He really means it, Liz, we had a talk about his behavior last time."

"And you're right to be mad, Liz," Jason said with what seemed like sincerity, though Liz had her reserved doubts, "I behaved badly, a complete jerk to everyone, especially your brother and husband, and I'm sorry. It's just being discharged is still touchy for me and it's been difficult adjusting to civilian life again, especially with my condition and medical support and stuff from the VA. There's still stuff I'm trying to work out, but I'm making it work. So, can I stay for dinner?"

Liz just gave him a hot unconvinced glare, doubtful he meant any of it. But not to seem rude, and maybe keep her parents off of her back about it again, and also one to give someone the benefit of the doubt she had one more place set at the table.

Sean called the children inside as Liz announced, "Dinner's ready, everybody."

The small gathering of people then all sat at the moderately widened dining room table, some people having less than happy looks on their faces about whom had to sit next to or near Jason.

Maggie then had everyone join hands as she began a quiet prayer of thanks,

"Lord in Heaven, we thank you for all we have received this day and we ask for the blessing of this food and a blessed future for Lucas and Gwen, and their precious children, and we ask you to bless Ellie and watch over her in this difficult time, and bring her home safely to us soon again. Amen."

Almost everyone, but not all, mumbled Amen though the thought behind it was appreciated. A thick silence was all that followed as food was passed around and the faint clinks of silverware were heard as everyone began to eat.

Liz finally got a bit of courage to speak up as she said, "That was really sweet of you to pray for, Mom, we all have a lot to be grateful for. But I've been getting this feeling for a few months now that I don't think Ellie will be coming back."

This made some of her family glance at her, Jason in particular with a furrowed brow of growing frustration and suspicion as Maggie just gave a confused look.

"Of course she will, Honey," Maggie insisted, "Why wouldn't she?"

Liz just gave a sigh as she said low, "Just a feeling. But let's not talk about it for now; this dinner is about Lucas and Gwen, not Ellie. So, how is everything with you guys anyway?"

"Aside from a few stressful antics from the kids, pretty well actually," Gwen said with a growing smile, "I got a promotion and a raise at the spa last week, and Luke's team is competing to go to state next year."

"All those kids have such big dreams of going professional in the NBA," Lucas said with a bit of a laugh, "And as hard as I drive them to be the best, I don't want them to neglect their studies either. A lot of them have so much more potential for more than basketball even they don't see in themselves. Physical fitness shouldn't mean a lack of intellectual prowess, a lesson I learn the hard way in high school."

"A life lesson everyone should learn," Stewart agreed, "Though I will always see improving one's intellect as more important, in my humble opinion."

Lucas smiled at this as he said, "Very true, Stewart. Anyway, there's still a way to go before they're really ready. In the meantime, Oliver past his math class thanks to Hector's tutoring, and as proud as I am of him he's been to the principal's office earlier this week for being disruptive in class with playing jokes on some of the other kids."

"Dad," Oliver groaned, while the other kids gave amused smiles, "Do we have to talk about this now? Nobody got hurt, and everybody thought they were funny, my friends love the whoopee cushion and the snakes in the can. Mr. Hector showed them to me and some of the other kids."

Everybody gave Hector some looks and he slumped a bit as he said, "Those things are for after classes, Oliver, not during, okay?"

"Okay," Oliver groaned.

Kelly gave an amused smile as she teased, "You're going to be a bad influence on these kids, Hect, they could become as bad as you and Sean were in school."

"Hey, it wasn't all bad," Sean said a bit defensively.

"I know, I know," Kelly said, "But as a teacher you have to set a better example for them. I don't want to be the one to bring them home to their worried parents late one night from trouble making or some other such high jinks, especially if they're friends of mine. Although maybe that'd be better than another police officer they didn't know."

"If they really get out of control, you could always sent them to boot camp," Jason said half joking with a smirk, making everyone at the table give him looks, the children especially looked a bit frightened while Liz gave him a cold glare.

Jason just gave a bit of a confused look at everyone's stares, until Stewart finally said, "I don't think it'll really come to that, Jason, they're good kids and they know better."

"Mommy, Daddy, you won't send us away, will you?" asked a fearful Chloe.

"No, Honey," Gwen reassured her, but then teased, "Just your brother the next time he leaves muddy tracks through the house."

"Mom," Oliver protested.

A few people gave small laughs, but Liz wasn't really all that amused as she said with some growing frustration, "You don't need to threaten them with boot camp every time they get into trouble, and it isn't the answer to everything. Besides, you're scaring them right now and I don't want this dinner ruined, so let's stop talking about it. Besides, I want to know why you didn't even attend Gwen and Lucas's second wedding when you and Ellie were invited."

Jason just gave a sigh of frustration as he put down his fork with a clank and gave Liz a cold look as he said, "You should know why; I got ordered to go overseas at that time, and I didn't want Ellie attending without me, she knew how disappointed I would've been. I had a duty to do for my country and she supported me in that, why couldn't you understand that, Liz?"

Liz just scoffed as she said, "More like you wouldn't let her go because you threatened her and kept her emotionally dependent on you."

Jason became tense as he nearly yelled, "I never laid a finger on her, I never hurt her, and she respected how I felt about it."

"Elizabeth, Jason, don't yell," Stewart said sternly with a loud tone, "Whatever reason they couldn't attend their friends' wedding, it doesn't matter anymore. What matters is celebrating and having a nice dinner now. So let's calm down and enjoy ourselves."

A rather thick silence fell over the dining room as everyone resumed eating; only occasional polite requests for more food or small quiet conversations between certain people were heard.

After over an hour of a rather quiet and slightly awkward dinner, the adults set to cleaning up and putting away any leftovers while the kids were allowed to go play outside and burn off some energy. Liz and Daniel then set to making some coffee as deserts were placed on another table for everyone to choose from.

As everyone got comfortable in the family room to have cake, cookies, or other deserts with their coffee, Liz's phone vibrated to show a text and upload of an internet video from one of her friends from work.

As she watched, her eyes just became so wide they looked like they would pop out of her head.

"What is it, Liz?" Daniel asked as he saw his wife's reaction to whatever played on her phone, the faint sounds of moaning and kissing made him curious.

Liz just stared at him numb and speechless as she stopped the video and hid her phone behind her back.

"I, I uh, I gotta go talk to someone," she stammered and quickly walked to her home office and to her computer to talk to Elona.

She waited three long and full minutes for Elona to answer her Skype, but there was nothing. Liz then tried the number of Johnny at that exclusive hotel somewhere in Romania instead.

He answered almost immediately as he said, "Oh, hey, Liz, sup?"

"Johnny, where's Elona?" she demanded rather quickly, startling Johnny a bit and making him hesitate.

"Uh, she's resting in her room," he said a bit slowly, "She and Drac kinda over did it on their date the last night and he's been watching over her to help her feel better again."

"What happened?" Liz asked worriedly, then demanded, "And explain this."

She showed Johnny the video on her phone, it was of Elona and the man in black making out fiercely in a passionate embrace and some parts of the video had been fuzzied or pixilated to make it more 'clean.'

"Uh…" was all Johnny could moan out at the moment as he blushed, to only face palm himself as he sighed hesitantly, "Oh, boy, I've been trying to take that video down, but it's gone viral. Drac will kill me if he saw it; make me look like a deflated whoopee cushion, which won't be pretty."

Liz just glared at him, waiting for an explanation.

"It's okay," Johnny stammered out, "Nothing happened, they got a little tipsy on their date and started getting kinda crazy and hot in the pants for each other, but I stopped them." He voice lowered a bit to a mumble. "Unintentionally, by the way."

Liz seemed to cool a bit, but still looked worried as she said, "You said Ellie's resting in her room, with her condition she shouldn't have so much alcohol. What happened to her? Don't tell me she's in a coma again."

"No, no," Johnny stammered out quickly, "She just got sick from too much drinking, but Drac's looking after her. He seems to take it really hard when she gets sick, even blames himself and gets really protective of her. And in case you're wondering, after she started feeling bad he practically flew her to her room and they've been there ever since, and even had the doctor look over her. "

Something in Liz seemed to rise for this Drac, intrigued and somehow grateful to him watching over her sister.

All this reassurance made her calm down a bit as she told Johnny, "Tell her to call me as soon as she's better, I worry about her. And tell this Drac guy thank you for everything he's done for her, and I hope to meet him someday."

"You bet, Liz," Johnny said with a thumbs up, "Chat later."

Feeling better, if still perplexed about what she saw, she closed her computer and returned to the family room downstairs to find Jason talking with her parents while her friends, husband and brother ignored him and chatted quietly with each other.

To Liz, what she saw and didn't like were two different parties ignoring each other in her own house when this was supposed to be about her friends' anniversary, and she knew right away what the problem was.

She then got a bit of a smirk on her face as a light bulb lit up in her head.

"Hey, Gwen, Lucas," she called to the guests of honor, "Could I talk to you for a minute? There's something I have to show you."

She brought them to a side of the room and they were shoulder to shoulder as she showed them the video on her phone, and they just went wide eyed at what they saw, Gwen going wide mouthed with shock as she covered her mouth and Lucas snorted as he held back a laugh.

The others became curious and joined Liz, Gwen, and Lucas while Liz's parents still sat with Jason, he said to Stewart and Maggie,

"So, even out there on the battlefield, I always remembered what my father taught me: Always be stronger than your adversaries, and don't take crap from anybody."

Stewart and Maggie gave some nods as Maggie said, "I'm sure your father meant well, to teach you some independence, Jason, sweetie, but you also shouldn't forget about showing mercy and love towards those who do wrong, forgive them for their sins. It called turning the other cheek."

"She's right, son," Stewart said, "I know it's easy to give in to wanting to defeat opponents when fighting out there for your country's freedom and values, but it should've also taught you to be better than the enemy you fight, otherwise you're no better than they are."

"I suppose you're right," Jason said with a bit of a shrug, though he didn't seem entirely convinced, "though it isn't easy to do in such a shitty world, and I wanted to protect Elona from that. But I now know I went too far being so tough on her, and that's what drove her away."

"That's not all that drove her away," Sean said aloud from another corner of the family room with a smug look on his face, making Jason give him a hot glare.

"I know what I did, Sean," he said in a hard warning tone, "and I don't want to talk about it now. I just want to move on and get back on my feet again, and be with Elona again. But considering women aren't your thing, you wouldn't understand."

Sean looked like he was going to snap at Jason, but Kelly just scoffed, "Yeah, but women are totally your thing. If you're really serious about moving on, Spencer, you need to accept Ellie has, too. Maybe you should get together with that sweet barista you had a fling with before she left. What was her name, Sassy? Slutty?"

Jason clenched his jaw a bit as he held back a yell and tried to say calmly, "Her name was Sara, and I tried to break it off with her before Elona left."

Kelly lost her sarcasm as she said, "Whatever. But, I'm serious about you having to move on. Ellie's clearly over you, and you have to get over her, too, because I'm worried your obsession with her will lead to trouble."

Jason just scoffed as he argued back, "I'm not obsessed with her, and none of you seems to get it. Maybe we needed some time apart, but that doesn't mean it's really over between us. I gave her the space that she wanted, but she'll be back and we'll be together again as we're meant to be. Once she sees I've changed, I'll do anything to make her happy."

"I don't think so," Kelly scoffed, "You blew it. Face it, Spencer, she's never coming back, she's found someone else."

"What're you talking about?" Jason demanded with suspicion and some doubt.

"Yes, Kelly, what are you talking about?" Stewart asked, "And why are you all over there in one corner? I thought this was a nice get together for friends and family. And what makes you all think Ellie isn't coming home?"

"Of course she'll come home," Maggie insisted, "Just because we were tough on her doesn't mean we don't love her anymore. We just need to be patient, like God is with many lost and troubled souls. In time, she'll come to her senses and come home, knowing this is where she belongs."

"Indeed, Maggie," Stewart agreed, "But I still want to know what makes my own kids and their friends think she won't come home."

"Don't listen to them, Stew," Jason said arrogantly, "They're obviously all against me and Ellie being together again just because I made a stupid mistake. Even if she's gone another year, I'll wait for her. You'll see, I know she's still in love with me, and she'll come running back into my arms."

Kelly glared at Jason, but then gave a rather smug smile as she just retorted, "Too late."

She grabbed Liz's phone and held it up for everyone to see as it played the viral YouTube video 'Draculona Duet' of Elona singing with a really handsome dark haired man in an old fashion nobleman wool tux and long cape, both looking really happy together.

Stewart, Maggie, and especially Jason just went utterly slack jawed and wide eyed with numbed shock.

"And that's not even the best one," Kelly said as she pulled up the next video; the one of Elona and the the new unknown man making out fiercely and passionately.

It had been called 'Draculona make out time' and the number of views showed it had already gone viral and was getting more yet.

"Oh, dear Lord, save me," Maggie gasped from growing appalled shock as she put a hand on her chest and seemed to faint with a low breath of "…ohhh…"

Stewart caught her and waved a hand in front of his wife's face it give her some air as he demanded, "Turn that off, now! It's upsetting Maggie."

Kelly paused it as she began to read some comments, "'Go, Count, you make that bitch yours; I'm totally jealous of this girl gettin' it on with such a hot guy, I wish I was her, 'cause she's so lucky; Hot, hot, hot!; Those two totally are goin' overboard, but I don't care, I ship it!'; and aside from the usual online trolling and flame wars, those are just some of the cleaner ones I can find."

Jason's face twisted with a growing hot anger as he looked at Kelly and the others, but they stared on and waited to see what he would do.

Outside, the kids heard someone give a rage filled scream, "AAAAAHHHHHH!" making them stop their playing with a ball they were tossing around.

"What was that?" Oliver asked.

"I think it was Auntie Ellie's mean guy friend screaming," Ally said, smirking at the very thought of it.

"Why would he do that?" Chloe asked.

DJ smirked as well as he said, "Maybe he saw that video with Auntie Ellie singing with this cool looking caped guy from YouTube. Mommy and Daddy don't like him, and Mommy always calls him 'jackass.'"

Ally became shocked at her older brother as she threatened, "I'm gonna tell Mommy you used a bad word."

"No, don't, you little tattle tale," DJ groaned, "I won't do it again, I promise."

This seemed to dissuade Ally, but then she smiled as she said, "He is that bad word, and he's a doodyhead."

The kids all laughed and resumed their game of catch.

Back inside, Jason just grit his teeth with a hard clenched jaw for some long moments until he finally said with a low angered voice trying to remain calm,

"I don't know who that bastard is, but clearly he must be some lunatic that just took advantage of my precious Ellie; made a move on her, or for some ludicrous reason coerced her when she was lonely. She's not thinking clearly, emotionally weak and needs me to protect her. Where is she?! I'm going to find that son of bitch and kill him!"

"Jason, calm down," Stewart tried to reason with him, "You might be right, but we don't know that for sure, and we don't know where she is at the moment, but clearly she needs our help. If we find out where she is, we'll have to save enough money and go and get her. Liz, tell us, where is she?"

Liz just crossed her arms in defiance and scoffed, "Relax, I was told they were drunk, so nothing really happened. And forget it, Dad, it's like we keep saying, Ellie's not coming home and we need to accept it. Especially you, Spencer, you need to face that it's over."

He looked ready to continue arguing, but something told him it wasn't worth it. Instead, Jason just stamped out of the house with a loud slam of the front door and was soon gone, leaving behind a tense quietness between the family and friends.

As Maggie finally regained some life to her as she slowly took deep breathes in her husband's arms, Stewart just gave a tense glare to everyone as he said low and frustrated,

"I hope you're all happy."

"Actually, Dad, I am," Liz said with a relieved sigh, "Happier than I was the entire time he was here. If you want to go after him, fine, but I don't want him coming to my house again uninvited. Alright, everyone, who wants more desert?"

There were some mutters from everyone who wanted some more sweet deserts as everyone just resumed like nothing happens, leaving a frustrated and worried Stewart and flustered Maggie in the family room alone.

Meanwhile, Sean smirked to himself as he looked at a picture on his own phone of Jason screaming, couldn't help but smile how Elona might love to see this and hoped one day soon to send it to her, while Hector was silent for a long while as he thought about his friend so far away and something about that last video just seemed off to him.

****Over the Haunted Forest near Hotel Transylvania, night time on the other side of the world

A few odd silhouettes soared through the velvet blue night sky; three large bat monsters lead by a small vampire bat with red eyes and some wispy grey fur.

As they all finally landed at the end of the long bridge leading from the forest to the majestic Gothic castle at the other end, Vlad quickly reverted to his true form in a puff of red and black mist as he told his minions,

"If you behave yourselves, I'll start letting you come inside with me, otherwise you all stay here as usual and I'll be back in a few hours. If I get so much as a whiff of you even thinking of hurting any of my human relatives, Bela, I'll zap your tuchus from here to the moon."

Carridine and Jiangshi just gave grunts and nods while Bela just frowned as they watched Vlad go into the castle. When he was finally out of sight through the revolving door, the three Bat Cronies followed Bela as they flew down to the very base of the island where they saw a glaring and clearly irate Quasimodo waiting for them by a large open cave entrance.

"So, did that little prank you planned work at all?" Bela asked with a clear smirk he doubted it.

Quasimodo just grit his teeth as he gave off a growing grunt of maddened frustration as his hands clenched into tight fists, then he just started hitting his head against a stone wall until he had a deep cut on his forehead that began to lightly bleed.

"So, I'm guessing whatever it was you had in mind didn't go as you wanted," Carridine said causally, while Bela and Jiangshi snickered low.

"Look!" Quasimodo snarled as he showed the Bat Cronies the make out video of Dracula and Elona, and they just cringed in disgust and revulsion as they gave groans of being grossed out or even did gagging noises.

"That is all kinds of wrong," Jiangshi cringed.

"I remember how Vlad got like that with tasty female human morsels," Bela said with a mix of pride and disappointment, "Somehow he lured them with his will, and then when they were at their weakest and he had them, WHAM! One bite to the neck and they were drained in seconds. Obviously his damn weak minded whelp lost that touch and the rest of his spawn are weak at it."

"Yeah," Jiangshi agreed with nostalgic longing, "He then left the lifeless husks for the rest of us, and while they aren't as tasty as fresh meat it was still invigorating to smell the lingering sense of fear and death upon them, and it showed we were important to Vlad. Now he's just drinking some fake slug shit like the rest of his pathetic family, and because of it he's become weak and holding us back."

They all gave rather loud affirmatives to each other until a frustrated and angered Quasimodo shouted at them,

"Enough of your pointless prattling and pathetic reminiscing! Listen to what's been said by everyone in ze comments!"

He read a few of them, plenty very inappropriate or very lewd if still sounding encouraging for the Vampire and human couple.

The three Cronies just gave blank and confused looks, making Quasimodo grunt with more frustration as he yelled out,

"Do I really have to explain it to you dimwitted pea brains?! Yes, my plan to discredit Dracula has backfired! It was supposed to show him in a moment of weakness, prove he was too easily distracted by zat woman and unfit to run the hotel! But instead, everyone is encouraging it, even embracing it! Even by monster kind, all because of ze stupid humans and their toxic mind numbing technology and abominable outrageous stupidity!"

The three Cronies gave more grunts and groans, making Quasimodo give a heavy sigh of frustration that now the brainless brutes get it.

Bela then gave his own frustrated snarl as he said, "I've waited long enough, you said we'd see some action if we teamed up, but I haven't seen that yet. Sure, there was some fun when I was small, but I need some real action. We tried the sabotage and other stupid stuff your way, short stuff, but now I say we do things my way. Are you with me, boys?"

Jiangshi and Carridine gave loud and excited 'Yeah!' but Carridine was only half hearted as part of him didn't want to risk Vlad's legendary wrath.

Quasimodo just gave a faint huff as he crossed his arms, not surprised that creatures such as these only cared about mindless violence. But seeing as nothing he tried worked so far, he saw little choice given his current situation.

"Fine," he scoffed, "We'll try your way. Go after as many humans as you want, I don't care. Anything to get rid of zem, and see how _Monsieur_ Dracula's shining reputation lasts. I just want ze hotel intact to be ze sanctuary it once was and will be again."

"Oh, sure it will," Bela slurred sarcastically, "You have my word as a fellow monster, the hotel will be just fine. C'mon, boys, let's have some fun."

All three gave smug smiles colored with a shared malice as they turned away from the hunchback and took off into the darkness, leaving behind a frustrated and skeptical Quasimodo to just fester in his growing loathing of Count Dracula and his misguided permitting of humans into the hotel.

* * *

Inside the hallways of the hotel, Vlad had been told his son was in Miss Parker's suite, and so made his way there for a hopefully pleasant visit.

Finding Miss Parker's suite, he knocked on the door and it was unexpectedly answered by Isadora which made him briefly give a raised eyebrow as she lead him to the master bedroom where he saw Dracula quickly humming to a sleeping Elona.

When he was done, Dracula gave a light and loving kiss on her cheek and Isadora lightly tapped him on the shoulder to show him Vlad was here. They all quietly left the room together while Isadora watched over Elona as Dracula closed the door.

Vlad gave his son a look of concern as he quietly asked, "Is she alright? What happened to her?"

Dracula quietly told his father what happened at the end of their date from the other night, making Vlad give a sympathetic look to his son.

"Don't worry, Dad," Dracula said with some reassurance, more for himself than Vlad, "She's going to be alright, I'll make sure of it."

Vlad put an arm around his son's shoulders as he said, "Good to know, son, I'm proud of you. Let's get something to eat, I'm starved."

They took an elevator to the lobby and to make their way to the hotel lounge when Johnny just ran up to the two Vampires before they set three steps out of the elevator, and he was panting heavily as he stammered,

"Drac, hold up. Uh, before you go anywhere," he stammered quickly through hyperventilation, "Just know I've been trying to fix everything, but it's already out there and it's really not my fault but really I've tried to delete it…!"

"Whoa, whoa," Dracula tried to get Johnny to stop as he held up a hand to his over active son-in-law, "Johnny, what're you talking about? And why are you acting so freaky nutsy-coo-coo like you've got a bat bee up your ass?"

Johnny flushed at this as his freckled face turned nearly the same color as his moppy hair and nervously combed his fingers through it.

"Well, uh…" he hesitated, "We should go somewhere private where I can show you guys. But I know you'll have a cow over it, so just please, please, pleeease just don't…"

He rubbed at his neck with clear apprehension, which Dracula just raised an eyebrow at and Vlad mumbled with a smiled,

"Mm, cow blood, haven't had that in a while."

Johnny joined them on the way to the lounge, but as they passed through the crowd Dracula noticed humans and monsters giving him strange looks and even groups whispering to each other, but what he could hear wasn't mean spirited or suspicious, though the whole thing was in and of itself. One group of men and male monsters gave him cheers as he passed them, one of them said loudly,

"Yo, Dracanaitor, you on fire, Dude, you go, man!"

Dracula and Vlad just looked at each other while Johnny bit at his lip in growing nervousness as a chill went down his spine.

They soon made it to the lounge and Johnny led them to a private corner booth to talk to them as they passed two giggling human women at the bar Dracula found rather familiar, a blond with a ponytail in her hair and a brunette with short hair.

As the three of them walked near the women, the blond became speechless and giddy as she poked at her friend and breathed out with a controlled excited squeak,

"Look, look, there he is! He's coming this way!"

"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!" her brunette friend nearly squealed, "We should totally get a selfie with him! Ask him."

"No, you ask him," the blond pushed, "I'm too nervous."

They both just became tensely silent as a passing Dracula gave them a look with a bit of a raised eyebrow, unsure of what to think. In that moment he recognized them; they were the same fangirls who took a picture with Frank when he and all of his friends were trying to bring out Dennis's Vampire side some months ago.

Not knowing what to do but not to seem rude, he gave them a polite smile and a nod as he said, "Good evening, Ladies."

For a long moment they were just speechless and in awe of him.

"EEEE!" the girls squealed together behind them as the threesome continued passed them.

"He looked at us!"

"He talked to us!"

"That was sooo cool!"

"And he's so gorgeous!"

"Do you think he sparkles?!"

Dracula continued to smile while Johnny held back a bit of laugh with a snort, while Vlad was just confused.

They finally sat down in a covered private corner booth, ordered some drinks as Johnny took out his iphone and fidgeted with it for some moments.

Their drinks of cow blood beer and a light beer for Johnny finally came, and Johnny continued to hesitate.

The two Vampires gave him expectant looks and he finally said low, "Okay, remember, I tried to take it down, but it's gone viral and forwarded so much I can't keep up. So, it's not my fault, and…and…"

"Johnny, what's going on?" Dracula groaned, "Stop prattling and just tell me what you need to tell me."

Johnny showed them the video of Dracula and Elona's make out and held his breath.

Dracula's face flushed red hot, first from a growing embarrassment to then a growing outrage as he grit his teeth tightly, his eyes glowed a stark red, and steam seemed to blow from his ears, while Vlad went wide eyed.

"Rrraaghh…!" Dracula nearly roared loudly, but he tried to hold it back as he squeezed his drinking goblet tightly enough to bend and warp it and he glared hotly at Johnny, who just looked ready to jump out of his skin and run in the next half second.

Dracula tried to cover the picture as he demanded Johnny to turn it off and he didn't want his father seeing his pixilated manhood, or even his passionate make out and drunken state.

As shocked and surprised Vlad was to see the video as Dracula was, the ancient Vampire just shrugged as he said rather cheekily,

"What? I've seen your shrinky-dinky since you were born, and it was so cute. Besides, you should be proud you take after your father."

"Dad," Dracula groaned with embarrassment, making Johnny snort but he stopped as Dracula glared at him again.

"How the bat hell did this happen?" Dracula demanded with seething anger.

Johnny gave a faint gulp as he just said meekly, "I honestly don't know, Drac, it just appeared online hours after you guys got back. Is there a chance your phone somehow accidently dropped and just started recording."

"No," Dracula spewed out, "I made sure it was off during the play and I forgot about it since then. But, if I find out who did this…"

"Calm down, Drac," Vlad said low as he tried to reason with him and put a hand on Dracula's shoulder, "We'll figure it out later."

Vlad ordered a new drink for Dracula as he hunched over and stroked back his black hair in a flurry of embarrassment, humiliation, and apprehension as he breathed with a bit of a broken voice,

"What am I going to do? If Elona sees that, I know she'll kill me."

"No, she won't," Vlad groaned, "Unless she's been carrying a wooden stake with her you didn't know about the whole time."

Dracula gave his father a glare, but he just smiled with a shrug while Johnny tried to hold in a laugh.

Dracula then got a thought as he said with a smile, "Maybe I can keep her in her room for a while, you know just until this craziness blows over. Yes, that's what I'll do."

"I really don't think that'll work, Drac," Johnny said with clear doubt.

"Don't be such a Debbie Downer, Johnny," Dracula scoffed, "Of course it will, I'll be sure of it. I go back to her in a few minutes, and make sure she gets a few more days of rest she needs."

He took a gulp of his drink, confident and certain of his simple and foolproof plan while Johnny looked doubtful and Vlad just smiled and shook his head at his son's naiveté.

* * *

Meanwhile, in her suite Elona awoke from a restful nap to find Dracula had gone, a bit disappoint as she really enjoyed his soothing humming to her to sleep. Feeling much better than she did in the last couple of nights, she steadily got out of bed to freshen up in the master bathroom as Isadora noticed her.

"Miss Elona, you should be in bed," she insisted.

"I'm okay, Isadora," Elona said, "I just need to use the bathroom real quick, and then I'll get some more rest."

Isadora gave a curtsy as Elona closed the door, but then called out, "Hey, Is, could you hand me my phone, please? I just want to check my E-mail."

"Here you are, Miss Elona," Isadora said as she levitated Elona's iphone into her hand.

"Thanks."

It was quiet for a minute or two as Isadora set to straightening out Elona's suite, but it was soon broken by a scream,

"OH, MY FUNKIN' GOD!"

Isadora could only freeze in place with a wide eyed expression.

* * *

Back beneath the twisting turning labyrinth of hidden tunnels of the massive castle, a disgruntled and scowling Quasimodo made his way to a large and detestingly now familiar chamber that reeked of an overwhelming putrid scent of body odor, soiled clothes, and the breath of never brushing teeth and an over consumption of raw meat.

As he limped towards his 'charge', his torch lit up near an enormous shackle of a black metal attached to huge chains linked to the stone ground which held tightly to the wrist of a pasty skinned and shaggily hairy wrist with some scars and dozens of blemishes like warts or moles.

Quasimodo raised his torch more as he grudgingly gazed up to the face of Glen, the monstrous giant who lived beneath the very foundation of Hotel Transylvania in its subterranean caverns and just watched the giant's ape-like face with a dimwitted expression as he watched a complete nothingness or something beyond Quasimodo's sight like a tiny bug or mote of dust the giant found fascinating for reasons beyond the hunchback's understanding, all while thick drool leaked from his bulgy thick lipped mouth.

Quasimodo made a few impressive leaps and bounds from a loose giant rock, to a wall, and then up to a rocky outlet high enough for him to look at Glen nearly straight in the eye as he held his torch in Glen's line of sight.

"Hey," he called out, but Glen ignored him or was oblivious, "Hey, you stupid dimwitted oaf!"

"Huh?" Glen grunted and finally looked at Quasimodo.

He smirked a bit as he said, "I know you're not all there…" He pointed his own head. "So I'll try to use small words. Don't you want out?"

Glen just grunted as he cocked his head, showing Quasimodo he understood and he smiled darkly at this.

"Surely you're tired of being cooped up in here, in these lonely dark tunnels in ze hotel's basement for so long now. _Monsieur_ Dracula says it's for your safety you be down here, but I think you should be out there, making friends and having fun with ze other monsters. Aren't you lonely, don't you want to make friends?"

Glen gave a sad grunt, Quasimodo gave a pseudo-sympathetic frown as he said, "Well, I can help you, I'm your friend. I've taken care of you for some time now, and I think it's unfair _Monsieur_ Dracula has left you down here for so long. I help you out of here, we go make new friends together."

Glen gave a happy grunt to this as he gave a rather disturbing if innocent looking smile. But then it dropped as he showed Quasimodo his chains and gave a sad groan.

"Not to worry, my simple minded friend," Quasimodo reassured the giant with a friendly smile, "I'll take care of your nasty chains, get them off of you and you will be free. But it will take a little time and you will have to wait, but I'll go as fast as I can."

Glen gave a grunt as he slumped a bit, but watched with some interest as Quasimodo took the largest rock he could carry and climbed near one of Glen's shackled wrists.

His past plans to sabotage the hotel and drive off the humans had failed miserable at every turn, and now saw little choice in what he had to do. He would have preferred to continue to use more subtle and clever ways to drive out the humans, but now he will try Bela's way; with brute force.

While Bela and his fellow Bat Cronies had some 'fun' on the outside; Quasimodo used the time he had to put this new contingency plan into play.

* * *

"Are you sure that's good idea, Drac?" Johnny asked his father-in-law as he, Dracula, and Vlad made their way through the hotel to one of the elevators from the lounge.

"Of course it is, Johnny," Dracula insisted with confidence, and a bit of a groan, "How many times do I have to keep telling you it's simple; Elona is asleep right now and I just have to keep her in bed and keep her from seeing her computer or phone until this mess blows over in a few days. She needs rest anyway."

"I don't know about that," Johnny mumbled to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck, while Vlad just gave an amused smile.

As they came to one of the elevators as it dinged, the doors opened to reveal a darkly scowling Elona in lavender and pink sleep shorts and top with spaghetti strap tank top and comfortable house slippers, with a clear angry fire burning through her blue eyes.

"Dracula!" she growled through her teeth as she stomped out of the elevator right in front of him.

"Elona!" he gasped, "My Love, Honeywings, what are doing down here? You should be in bed."

She didn't seem to listen as she seethed, "You said nothing happened!"

It took him a moment to realize what she meant as he insisted, "I meant it, nothing happened…"

"Then what the hell is this!?" she nearly yelled as she held up her phone right into his face with the viral video playing, making Dracula go wide eyed and gradually blush a bright pink while Johnny gave a blank look of 'I-told-you-so' and Vlad just gave an amused smile as he quietly laughed through his nose.

But Elona was clearly in no mood to laugh, her anger and growing humiliation were a heavy palpable aura and steadily grew by the moment as she loudly vented,

"That's not nothing! It's obviously some sick game to you to inflate your male ego! I can't believe this, I thought you were different! But you're like just like all the other dicks I've gone out with, and only have one thing on your sick minds! You used me!"

Dracula became frustrated as he glared at Elona and began to yell defensively, "I didn't do that! I don't know where that video came from or who took it, I didn't even know about it until a few minutes ago!"

"Oh, don't give me that crap!" Elona yelled, "I've heard that kind of excuse before, and it's pathetic! I'm just another slut toy for your damn list so you can be top incubus boy, so you got me drunk so you could fuck with me and make some egotistic porn movie to show the entire goddamn planet on the internet!"

"You don't think I'm humiliated by this!?" Dracula yelled back, "I'm telling you, I didn't do that! Someone's gone to a lot of trouble to pull some sick prank on me or ruin my reputation! Besides, you're the one who wanted to indulge in drinking party wine!"

"Don't you turn this back on me and start saying it's all me fault!" she shouted, "That's what my last damn boyfriend did, and he was a fuckin' womanizer! That's what _all_ men are, hormonal womanizers looking for the next place to put their dicks in and show it off to the rest of the world just to show how damn pretentiously macho they are!"

"I DIDN'T TAKE THAT DAMN VIDEO! RAAARRGH!" Dracula shouted so loudly it echoed throughout the room and his eyes glowed red, and he was just so angered by the argument he unleashed a powerful roar that made Elona's hair fly back.

For a long frozen moment there was only silence so thick it could be cut with a knife between Elona and Dracula, with onlookers of monsters and humans, and Vlad and Johnny.

In that moment Dracula realized what he had done as his face steadily dropped as he saw tears slowly well up in Elona's eyes, immediately regretting what he had done.

"Elona, I…I didn't mean…" Dracula stammered low, but she just gave an exclaimed cry as she threw her phone at Dracula and he caught it in a ball of blue mist in reaction as he saw Elona run off away from them as she quietly cried her waterfall of tears.

For some long moments, Dracula just stood where he was in numbness and guilt, not really sure what to do.

He looked at his father, who gave him a disappointed look, and then to Johnny who looked at him sadly; yet both nodded in her direction.

Dracula gave a soft sigh as he prepared to fly after her, but then a suit of armor guard came running up to him as it gave a stiff salute and reported,

"Sir, there's a commotion happening outside within the hotel courtyards. Several winged monsters appear to be attacking areas with a lot of human guests."

Dracula was momentarily conflicted, but he could just give a faint groan as he followed the guard outside with Johnny and Vlad close behind him, the elder Vampire became suspicious as he gave a scowl.

****Near the hotel tennis court

Now this is what it was all about, the real way to get revenge and get back to your fearsome monster roots.

Bela relished in the invigorating thrill of hearing the humans scream in his large acute ears as he soared upward a dozen meters or so to then dive again like a large falcon into the gathered crowd of humans and some sparse monster guests, one of whom was Wayne as he tried to herd his tennis students to a safe corner.

Bela soared towards the werewolf and the few humans with him, spread his wings with a leathery snap to catch himself on the air and glided just feet parallel above the ground as he glided on a collision course with Wayne, a sneering smirk on his beastly face as Wayne tried to protect the humans behind himself and stared defiantly at the giant bat monster.

Sailing towards them, he just pulled up at the last second as Wayne tried to swipe at him with his formidable claws and missed Bela's face by millimeters, making the werewolf growl in frustration while Bela just grinned with clear delighted malice to himself.

He glided high a dozen or so meters more before making another dive towards Wayne and his human students, whom he told to run for safety. The three humans ran a short ways, momentarily attracting Bela's attention as they made titillating and easy prey for him, prey he hadn't had the sinister pleasure of chasing and devouring for a long time.

He seemed to be upon them as they screamed in fright of him, and as he brought his large and powerful feet forward to grab one of them, Bela suddenly felt something land on his back and make him fumble and nearly loose his flight path as a powerful pair of jaws started chewing painfully on one of his large ears and pulled hard to nearly rip it off.

Bela's head pulled back up and missed the humans as Wayne pulled on the bat demon's ear and made them soar up as Bela gave a growl of frustration more than irritating pain. As Wayne continued to snarl and chew viciously on Bela's ear, the bat demon became more and more frustrated than anything else and began doing a rapid midair spin, making Wayne sink his own claws tighter into Bela's hide.

The poor werewolf began to get air sick as his fur seemed to turn green, and the dizzying speed of the air spin became too much as he became overwhelmed with a rising vertigo, and he finally slipped off of Bela and fell back to the tennis court, crashing into the net to rip it from its posts and becoming entangled in it. His human students and some nearby monsters quickly gathered around him to help him, while Bela smirked to himself in the air as he flew over near the bridge.

The former leader of the Bat Cronies then spotted with his acute eyesight a hotel hearse making its way across the bridge and he got a dark smile on his homely beastly face again as he glided down on another collision course with it as it got close to the front arched gate.

Just before the hearse drove through the front gate, Bela flew right in front of it as he gave a rumbling snarl at its passengers inside, a zombie driver and a human family with two small children. His monstrous form took up most of the vision of the front window as he soared within feet of it to give them a near fatal jump scare, making everyone inside scream and the driver nearly lose control of the car to veer off from side to side as it came into the circular driveway and crash into the side of one of the trees flanking the entrance, shattering glass and crushing metal to become deep dented and warped.

Seeing it crash made Bela smile with a thrilling pride as he flew off to meet one of the others.

Over the swimming pool area of the hotel, Jiangshi reveled in a somewhat more destructive and cruel sense as he attacked humans and monster guests alike. People ran screaming in terror of him as he landed hard on the ground near the pool to give off a beastly rumbling growl before he began randomly attacking people or vandalizing things in his way.

He gave a vicious amused sneer as he swiped his massive claws at any nearby bystanders with amazing speed; a cyclopsian monster that he just barely scratched and a couple of nearby humans that also managed to evade his attack, and all just ran off in opposite directions of him. Jiangshi was only momentarily disappointed at his misses, but was just the beginning of his 'fun' and there was more than enough for him to do damage to in whatever little time he may have.

He gave off dangerous roars as he began rampaging around the pool area, tossing aside lounge chairs and tables, or ripping them apart with his bare claws as he set to even attacking any monster and human guests who were unfortunate to be too close to him; one of his victims was a human man who tried to herd his friends away and just got grabbed and picked up by his neck and leg and got tossed hard into the pool by the bat demon. Another would be victim was a purple skinned hag who screamed her lungs out as Jiangshi swiped at her with his claws and made large rips in her bathing suit, making her run away screaming as she clung it to her body.

A few guests tried to be bold enough to stop him, some humans took up broken table or chair legs to use as bludgeoning weapons, or tried to throw rocks or other debris at him, which he just shielded himself with his wings from it or swiped annoyed away from himself. A skeleton tried to challenge him to a fist fight, but Jiangshi just shattered him to a pile of bones in a single hit, or a couple of zombie bellhops tried to grab him but he just tossed them aside or he easily ripped them apart and tossed their body pieces into the pool or other random places.

A small party of suit of armor guards came running out of the hotel with spears at the ready as their leader ordered loudly, "Cease, fiend!"

Jiangshi smirked at this chance for a real challenge as he just grabbed the lead armor guard's spear and made him careen through the air to shatter in a metallic crash on the other side of the pool while the Bat Crony used the spear to shatter the other armor guards to smithereens, or just use his bare hands.

He momentarily looked around at the mess of shattered metal he made, and felt unsurprisingly disappointed this fight was so brief. He just tossed aside the spear and took off into the air again with a powerful flap of his large wings.

It was then at that moment he took off, several large tentacles rose from the pool to chase after Jiangshi and grab him. He just smirked at this as he began flying in unpredictable spirals and loops to evade Gustav's grasp; he flew high in a spiral first to make one tentacle look like a giant twisty slide to then do a few twisting inverses and loop-de-loops as two more large tentacles came after him and loop and twist on themselves as Jiangshi flew throw a large loop of another one and made two of them tighten into a large knot. He then flew between two more that they aimed to grab him, but instead he flew between a human girl and a hairy goblin girl and both got grabbed into the air by Gustav's tentacles, making them scream in terror; somehow realizing this Gustav gently placed them back on the ground and patted their shoulders in reassurance.

While Bela and Jiangshi were having their fun, Carridine just flew a bit on the outskirts of the castle to watch some of the goings on, only swooping in every now and then to scare some monster and human guests, but his monstrous heart really wasn't into it.

He met up with Bela and Jiangshi as they watched the panicking mayhem in the pool area, and a second later Bela spotted a familiar human grub of interest.

"Down there," he pointed to an arriving Elona, "Grab that human!"

Elona was so distressed by what just happened, she didn't pay attention to where she was going; she just wanted to get away from that 'monster,' his roar frightened her so much she was certain he was going to maul her.

How could she let it happen again? Why was she always so stupid when it came to romance? Why was she always so gullible? She had seen an ugly side to plenty of guys she had known, but never like that, and it made her question everything about him.

Her judgment was so clouded over by her distress and anger it took her a second after hearing screaming around herself to realize she was in the middle of panicking chaos.

Another half second too late, she heard a rough voice yell out "Grab that human!" and looked up to see a giant bat monster snatch her up with his powerful feet and into the air, making her scream in fear.

It was also in that moment Dracula and Vlad came running out to the pool area to see Jiangshi snatch Elona and just made Dracula gasp with worry and fear as he cried out,

"Elona, no!"

He then growled with a growing anger as he turned into a bat and flew after them, Vlad transformed as well and followed at a slower pace.

"Oh, my god!" Elona cried as she saw how high the bat monster was taking her, her old fear of heights grew quickly as she lost her slippers and they fell below.

Jiangshi and Bela laughed maniacally as Elona struggled a bit in Jiangshi's grip as the Bat Crony flew up to the other two and Bela said,

"Nice snatch, Ji! Now let's fly!"

The three Bat Cronies soared higher, making Elona cry out in fear again, but she tried to gather her courage as she began yelling out,

"Let me go, you flying bastard! Put me down!"

"Let you go?" Jiangshi mocked with oozing sarcasm, "You really want to be let go?"

She struggled some more in his grip as she bravely glared at him, and Jiangshi just shrugged a bit as he said,

"Okay, I'll let you go, human."

With a mighty swing from him legs, Jiangshi called out to Bela, "Yo, B, catch!" and Elona was sent careening through the air as she gave a cry of fear again, her life again momentarily flashing before her eyes; yet this time much of it involved her time with Dracula and how she now regretted that last fight.

But the bat monster called Bela caught her in his large feet as he gave a maniacal laugh.

While Elona was still terrified by being tossed about like a ball high in the air by malevolent bat monsters, something else rose within her as though to tell herself she was more than this and she didn't have to take this or be treated this way.

She looked up at Bela as he just laughed with his friend as her face glared into a growing determination as she swung her own legs a couple times to then kick Bela in his gut as hard as she could. This momentarily surprised him as he had the wind kicked from his lungs, but he brought his head down to within her view as he glared dangerously down at Elona and he threatened,

"Quit it, you stupid human, or I'll rip ya in half right now!"

Elona didn't listen, but this just seemed to provoke or empower her more as she brought her legs up high again and kicked Bela hard in the face as she gave a fierce and defiant cry, in the back of her mind even grateful to her yoga exercises.

This last kick surprised Bela as he felt his nose may have been cracked and his face ached, but this human was making him mad and only becoming a nuisance.

He gave a snarl as he said, "Have it your way."

Elona gave a pained cry as she felt Bela's foot begin to tug on her arm, but it only last a moment as there came an angered roar.

Dracula rocketed up to the Bat Cronies as he saw them toss Elona about like a toy, fearful for what they would do to her yet he praised her for her bravery she briefly showed. Yet his anger, and something darker, grew within him as he heard Bela threaten his mate.

In a flash of indigo and deep violet mist he changed to his true form as his eyes glowed blood red and he roared dangerously at them to then transform into a larger version of his bat form as he shouted angrily with an otherworldly echo in his voice,

"Take your stinkin' claws off the woman I love, you damn dirty beast!"

It took a fleeting but frozen moment for Elona to realize what he just said, but the next thing she knew Bela let go of her and she began to fall to her doom.

"HELP!" she cried.

Dracula glared dangerously at Bela, but he just shrugged as he said, "You said take my claws off her. Hah, hah, haahh."

Elona was certain she was going to die, but the next moment she saw a familiar black cape ripple through the air and she was in a strong embrace as it wrapped around her for safety as she heard an old and raspy voice cry out,

"It's okay, Drac, I've got her! Miss Parker's okay!"

She realized it was Vlad, and though grateful to him for saving her it momentarily confused her until she looked up as Vlad gently and gracefully flew down and softly landed on the ground near the pool.

Bela smirked at Dracula as he purposefully let go of Elona, and for a moment was certain the softy of a Vampire would go after her until he heard Vlad's voice. The next thing Bela knew, Dracula gave another angered roar as he body slammed into the Bat Crony, making a small bang of thunder that could be felt by the watching bystanders below.

As surprised as Bela was, he gathered his wits again to then push back at Dracula and even punch him while trying to keep himself airborne.

Bela reveled in the thought of finally having a challenging fight, but then heard Carridine call out,

"Let's go! If we stay any longer it's our heads up our butts if Vlad sees you fight any more!"

Jiangshi gave a groan of disappointment as he followed Carridine, while Bela looked down and saw Vlad giving a dark glare as he held the human woman close to himself.

Dracula nearly swiped at him with his large wing, but Bela maneuvered away enough to be missed by inches as he followed his friends and grumbled to himself,

"Later, Vlad's spawn, but sooner than you think."

The Bat Cronies flew off into the darkness towards the Haunted Forest, and an enraged Dracula would have followed until her heard Vlad call out,

"Drac! Drac, let them go! I'll deal with them later! Elona's okay!"

He stared after the fleeing cowards longer than he needed to, how he craved to taste their fresh life giving nectar. But he had to keep his bloodlust under control, for it will have to wait.

He struggled to get himself under control again as he flew down the pool area, straining a bit as he billowed into mist again feet from the ground and resume his true form.

He took a few deep breaths as he gradually reformed and stood in front of Vlad and Elona, momentarily straining to as he gathered his will to push away a growing craving for the blood of living creatures.

He then saw Elona, still in the gentle fatherly embrace of Vlad, looking at him with an uncertain and still hurt dropped face, and it wrenched at his heart as he remembered what happened only a short while ago. His face also dropped in shame and remorse, making him conflicted about what to do.

Elona felt conflicted as well, yet she saw something in Dracula's eyes that made her heart ache and lighten a bit at the same time as she also remembered what she may have heard him say up there.

She looked up at Vlad with a bit of uncertainly, as though hoping the elder Vampire could give her some sage advice. He just gave a small smile to her as though to say she already knew what to do.

She slowly left his embrace and went to Dracula, both looking into each other's eyes with some uncertainty and expectation. Yet the longer they stared into each other's eyes, the stronger something between them grew to make their hearts ache and beat faster in sync together.

Finally, Elona just threw herself into Dracula and embraced him tightly as she buried her face in his chest. He was momentarily surprised by this, but his heart just seemed to soar to the clouds as the ends of his lips curled into a small smile and he returned the embrace and rested his cheek atop her head.

They remained this way for some long moments as he quietly mouthed to himself, "I love you."

Elona held more tightly to him as though she might have heard this, making Dracula give a small smile as he tried to hold back a small welling of tears.

Vlad smiled at what he saw before him, but it dropped to a frown as he then looked out into the night and said,

"I'll see you later, son, I have some rabble rousing flying rats I have to take care of."

In a puff of red and black mist, Vlad became a bat again and flew off into the night.

Dracula was only aware of this as he watched his father fly off a long minute later, and then just gathered Elona into his arms and walked his way across the pool area.

"I'm okay, I can walk," she protested with a wary tone.

"Not the way I'm taking you back to your room," he said a bit sternly as he then made a step up the wall and walked up like he walked down a hallway, completely defying the laws of gravity and physics and making Elona hold a little tighter to him as she looked down with a small gasp.

Dracula just smiled a bit at this as he walked along the outside of his hotel on the way to Elona's suite.

For a few minutes they were both silent, and would have been content with it but something weighed a bit heavily on Dracula's mind.

"I know this may not be the best time," he said quietly, "but we need to talk. I'm sorry for roaring at you, by the way."

Elona just gave a quiet sigh, she could forgive him for that, but she asked, "What about that video?"

Dracula huffed a bit through his nose as he said with quiet frustration, "I wish I could prove to you I didn't do it. Johnny thought my phone somehow got it, but it was in my pocket the whole time."

"I left mine in my room on our date so I wouldn't be distracted or interrupted," Elona said.

"Okay," he grumbled a bit, "I just wish I could prove I didn't do it, I'd never do something like that to you. I care about and respect you too much to do such a perverted and disgusting thing to you."

Elona didn't know why, or maybe she didn't yet want to admit to herself the possibility, but on some visceral level deeper than anything she had ever known she knew he was being completely truthful and honest with her.

"I believe you now," she admitted with some guilt, "but it still begs the question of who did it."

"I promise I'll find out as soon as possible," he said soothingly with reassurance, "But there's something else we should talk about, and we've danced around it for too long."

"What's that?" she asked.

"I know you have your reasons for not wanting intimacy," he said a bit bluntly.

"Drac," she moaned a bit.

"I'm serious, Elona, we need to talk about this. I have this feeling there's more than what you told me before. Does it have to do with that video?"

Elona just sighed a bit, too embarrassed and reluctant to talk about it.

"I really don't want to talk about it," she said, "But to make you understand, let's just say that jerk wasn't my first. There was this one guy I dated in high school, and he recorded us and I didn't know until the next day and I was just so humiliated I wanted to change schools, or it got so bad I nearly committed suicide."

This made Dracula go wide eyed with shock, and he held her a little closer to himself as though to reassure them both she was real and she was safe with him.

"And you thought that's what happened," he said with quiet understanding, "it's disgusting. Why would humans do such a thing?"

"I don't know," she groaned, "I could just give a rant about all that's wrong with it. But I've always believed that it's supposed to be the ultimate form of trust between lovers, that when you share yourselves that way it seals it, it a spiritual thing, you know what I'm saying?"

Dracula just gave a smile as he whispered, "Yes."

Elona just groaned with some reluctance, "Can we not talk about it anymore?"

Dracula just remained silent.

A few minutes later, they finally made it to the balcony of the master bedroom of Elona's suite and Dracula easily made his way in.

He then set to making Elona comfortable as he tucked her in and gave her a loving kiss on the forehead.

"I have to go," he said.

"Wait. Won't you stay with me for a while?"

He smiled at her as he kneeled by the bed and held her hand as he said with some disappointment, "I can't, I have to see to the other guests, make sure everyone who got hurt is taken care of and repair whatever damage those bat asses made to my hotel. It could have been worse, and I know they're capable of far worse."

He saw the disappointment on her lovely face as she said low, "Okay."

She then shot up from her bed and embraced him, stunning him for a moment but he just smiled and returned it tenderly.

"I love you, too," she said so quietly, only his sharp Vampire hearing could pick it up.

They kissed tenderly, and he gently caressed her cheek with his knuckles and soon left with heart filled with a bit more hope.


	23. Slices of a New Life Pt 1

Slices of a New Life

****Vlad's cave, the same night

The dark gray furred bat gave a deep scowl as he approached his home, frustration and anger burned hotly within him as thoughts about what to do with Bela and the other two conniving Cronies raced through his brain but Vlad's judgment was too clouded over to really focus.

He wasn't too surprised by what he saw Bela do at the hotel, but he had thought Carridine at least knew better than to risk his true master's wrath, and Jiangshi…well he and the rest of the colony of giant bat monsters were always something of a mixed bag, if aggressive and unpredictable.

Still, he is going to give them a piece of his mind…after he takes a chunk out of Bela's first. Perhaps with a few tweaks to that hypnotizing spell.

At that moment, the three culprits huddled tightly together, Carridine full of apprehension and fear which he didn't try to hide from the others, and rightly so as he hissed to the other two,

"I knew that was a bad idea. Vlad's gonna have our asses, and mine's the biggest on the line."

"Yours?!" Bela questioned loudly, "I'm the one with the hypnosis spell on me that says I can't have the fun I want. Besides, don't tell me that wasn't like the ol' days, you remember? All those mushy, squishy weakling humans running in fear from us, and if we only had a few minutes more their blood and their souls would've been ours. C'mon, boys, don't tell me you didn't have even just a tiny bit of fun back there, didn't ya?"

Jiangshi just gave a big smug smile to the whole thing, clearly having wanted more, while Carridine looked thoughtful for a moment. Finally he gave a small nod as he said low,

"It did feel like the old days again, it was pretty nostalgic back there."

"Ohh, and that's what I'm tryin' to show you guys," Bela said in his usual loud tone, "Vlad's holdin' you back, makin' you soft and weak. Is that what you are, weak?"

The dozens of other bat demons within the colony yelled 'NO!', making Bela smile as he yelled more,

"Then when the time comes, we'll attack that miserable human infested hotel, with or without Vlad! Whose with me?!"

Nearly the entire colony of Bela's former crew roared in excited conformation, but Carridine interjected as he yelled,

"Now, hold it, gang! Aren't you forgetting something, or rather someone? Vlad, I mean. As much as I too want things to go back to the way they were before, he's still our master and I don't wanna risk his…"

"Bela!" a voice boomed in a loud echo throughout the cathedral sized cave, making all of the Bat Cronies look to the cave entrance and freeze in place.

Vlad came through the cave in a quiet yet tangible whoosh of air with his eyes glowing a harsh red as he sneered in anger at Bela,

"I warned you about making trouble! Now, you've forced me to…"

Bela only pretended to be fearful for a moment, prepared for whatever soft-hearted punishment Vlad was about to dish out to him, but the next moment Carridine jumped between Bela and Vlad as he pleaded,

"Wait, Vlad, don't blame him, it's my fault. You counted on me to watch him, but he begged me to let him go for a fly and before I knew it we were chasing him to the hotel and things just got out of claw from there."

Vlad stopped for a moment as the glow faded from his eyes, but he gave a frown of anger underlined with skepticism. He eyed Bela more, but he just gave Vlad was, he hoped, a blank if stone faced look.

Vlad held up his gnarled blue hand and did a gesture as his eyes momentarily glowed a sharp red again, Bela felt a sudden sharp pinch in his brain which made him flinch and give a faint grunt through his fangs.

He looked at Vlad questioningly as Vlad began to say, "Looks like I have to make the hotel off limits, too. You were forbidden to attack my family or humans related to me, but since you seem to have guano for brains that can't tell humans apart the spell now keeps you from going anywhere near it, only at the edge of the bridge over the lake until I say otherwise. Is that clear?"

Bela gave a low growl at his tightened restrictions, and just nodded at Vlad who then glared darkly at Carridine, making the new Bat Crony leader freeze in place as he said,

"As for you, Carridine, I expect better. From now on, keep a closer eye on Bela or you'll be in the same casket as he'll be."

Carridine glared at Bela, but he was just given the same stone faced look.

"Speaking of caskets," Vlad said as he suddenly felt wary from his flight home and energy draining frustration with his Bat Cronies, "I'm going to take a nap, and I expect quiet. If I sense any sign of trouble from any of you, I'll clip all your wings."

Vlad left the throne room to make his way to his resting chambers as dozens of eyes looked back at Bela in expectation.

"Don't worry, boys, our chance will come. This is just a temporary setback," Bela proclaimed in a near whisper.

****Glen's grotto, beneath Hotel Transylvania

Quasimodo gave heavy pants and wiped his wet sweaty brow as he continued to hammer with a big rock at another of Glen's shackles, leaving a streak of dirt across his already filthy forehead and grunting in exhaustion and frustration.

After a minute of rest to catch his breath, he prepared to begin hammering away again when he heard a squeaking call for his attention to find Esmeralda running up to him.

"Hello, my sweet," he greeted with true affection as he allowed Esmeralda to skitter up his arm and to his shoulder, "What kind of repulsive sappy, saccharine news of Monsieur Dracula and that human woman do have to tell me zis time?"

Esmeralda just gave a dark smile as she whispered in her squeaky language what she had recently observed between Dracula and Elona.

Quasimodo just gave a momentarily confused look, then a dark smile of malice spread across his homely face as his yellow eyes lit with an inner insanity as thoughts of the possibilities of what he could do with this latest information.

"Interesting," he said low in a near whisper to himself.

****Elona's suite, the next night

Finally feeling much better after a couple nights of rest from her date with Dracula, Elona freshened up and dressed and decided to head out and find Dracula or any of her other friends.

She made it to the elevator as it opened to reveal, to her surprise, Johnny and he looked happy to see her as well.

"Hey, Elona," he greeted with an easygoing wave and a smile, "I was just coming to check up on you. Are you feeling better, 'cause you look a lot better than you did a couple nights ago."

"Yes, much better, thank you, Johnny," Elona said with a smile, "I was about to go find Drac or the girls, as I need to get out of my suite for a while."

"Drac's busy with hotel stuff," Johnny told her, "But he'll be over the moon you're feeling better, and I don't know about the girls, but you're welcome to come hang with me and my family. The folks and my nephews came from California for a surprise visit the night you guys were on your date and I told them all about you."

Elona was unsure of how to feel about this, yet she was still flattered Johnny had told his family a bit about her. Hopefully without mentioning a certain personal issue she still wanted to keep private.

They soon made it to his and Mavis' private suite where Elona saw several unfamiliar faces, a rather tall and burly if fatherly looking man with auburn hair with a bit of gray at his temples, a motherly woman with graying blond hair and glasses that seemed to magnify her honey brown eyes upon her round face, and had a very pronounced and rounded figure at her hips giving her a very pear like if still attractive figure, and she was easily dwarfed by the taller man.

Elona also saw three young boys, the oldest looking like he might be eight or nine years old with dark ginger brownish hair with his bangs hanging low over one eye and wearing what Elona thought was like an 'emo' outfit with a gray shirt under a flannel jacket and jeans; the middle one looked to be not much younger than the first one and was a chubby boy with bright orange red hair resembling Johnny's and Dennis' hair coloring and styled like a fauxhawk, and he wore a gray shirt with a shark on it; and the youngest looked to be Dennis' age with closely cropped dark brown ginger hair and neatly parted on his left side, unlike the other boys' messy looking hair, and he wore a dark blue sweater over a polo shirt and khaki shorts.

"Johnny," the woman greeted with a big smile as she hugged him and then the man as he said,

"Hey, sport."

"Hey, everybody," Johnny greeted with his own smile, "This is Elona, I hope it's okay, but I invited her to hang with us for a while. Elona, these are my parents, Mike and Linda, and my nephews Troy, Parker, and Conner."

"Oh, yeah," Linda said, "The lady Dracula was making out with the other night. Johnny said you're his new girlfriend. So, does that mean you and Dracula are an item? It looked like you two were getting pretty serious in the car the other night. I know Johnny didn't mean to interrupt your little tryst there, but maybe it was a good thing he did because you and Dracula might've regretted it in the morning, especially with being so intoxicated, so trust me you'd want to remember such a special time in your life."

Elona felt her face flush so hot she thought she was sweating like a rain storm, which Johnny may have noticed as he too seemed to blush as he snapped with a bit of hard tone, "Mom, please."

"Linda," Mike groaned in his signature monotone, "I thought we agreed not to bring it up."

"Oh," Linda gasped low as she went a bit wide eyed realizing what she just said, "Oh, I thought we weren't supposed to talk about her getting sick because Johnny said you had a health condition."

Elona gave Johnny a hard glare which he just returned with an embarrassed grin and shrug.

All the while the boys laughed low and snickered behind their hands.

Elona didn't want to seem rude to Johnny's family, but his mother's rambling made her very uncomfortable, yet part of her couldn't help but think Linda just meant well, if in a blissfully ignorant kind of way.

"Um, thanks for inviting me to visit, Johnny," Elona said with a bit of embarrassment and hesitation, "But maybe I should just go find Eunice and the others, uh, I, uh, I don't want to intrude on your family visit."

"No, no, dear," Linda pleaded as she took Elona's hand, which surprised the younger woman, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. My mouth runs away from me sometimes and I don't always know when or how to stop. If you're seeing Dracula that means you're practically family, so why don't you stay for a family dinner. I ordered room service already and it'll be here any minute. I always enjoyed cooking for my family, but how often do you get to order free room service at a fancy hotel, even one originally for supernatural monsters."

Elona hesitated for a fleeting moment, but she realized how hungry she was getting and so curiously and politely asked, "What are we having?"

"I told the kitchen to surprise us, as long as it's regular human food and not any of their weird monster food."

Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis all gave Linda wide eyed stares, making her stammer a bit, "Uh, not that there's anything wrong with it."

Mavis shook her head a bit while Johnny gave a small shrug to his wife, and Elona tried to hide a small smile as she couldn't help but understand how Linda must have felt, similar to the first time she saw the hotel's exotic monster food.

Room service soon arrived as a zombie server pushed a cart filled with an assortment of human food into the suite, making everyone's mouths water at the smorgasbord of meals to choose from to mix and match; an assortment of finger sandwiches, chips and dip, salads, and some richer fancier looking foods like a fillet mignon, caviar, grilled shrimp, lamb chops, different cheeses, and some shish kabobs, Elona even saw a few choices of desserts such as slices of double chocolate cake, cheese cake, pecan pie, key lime pie, different kinds of fruit tarts, and a few other sweet looking foods she couldn't remember the names for but had seen in one form or another in windows of fancy restaurants.

While her mouth watered at the newly arrived room service, Elona felt hesitant to try any of it considering how she over indulged the other night. Then Johnny, Mavis, Dennis, and the Louchrans began to help themselves to the food after thanking the zombie as he/it just limped away, then Linda noticed Elona just standing off to the side.

"What's wrong, Elona?" she asked, "Aren't you hungry? There's plenty for everyone, and you're welcome to have some."

Elona bit her lip lightly as she hesitated to answer, but finally said, "Well, uh, it's just that I have to eat a strict diet due to my condition, and some of that food looks too rich for me. Plus, Drac's pretty over protective of me even with what I eat, even though I pushed him to let me have some whine and fancy desserts on our date. Sometimes I think he watches what I eat so much for me he probably can read my mind and know I'm trying something he thinks will make me sick."

* * *

Unknown to her at that very moment, in his office Dracula was finishing some hotel paperwork when he suddenly got this buzzing feeling in the back of his mind and suddenly worried about Elona. He froze in his seat as he let his psychic senses lock on her and he waited for a moment.

A long half second later he just gave a calming breath of 'phew' and shrugged, going back to work on hotel business.

* * *

"Maybe I'll just have some salad," Elona said, though she was a bit disappointed she couldn't allow herself to try some of the other delicious looking and really tempting foods.

Still, she didn't want it to ruin a nice dinner with a big family, something she hasn't experienced in a long time and it made her nostalgically happy and a little sad.

A little later than night, Elona joined Johnny, Mavis, Dennis, and the Louchrans as they made their way to the family room where everyone would choose a family movie to watch together when there came a low friendly wrapping at the suite's door. Linda answered it to find Dracula smiling as he said politely,

"Hello, Linda, how are you enjoying your stay?"

"Hi, Dracula, we were just about to sit down to a movie, would you like to join us?" Linda asked.

"That sounds nice, Linda, but I want to invite everyone to a game of basketball, and I wanted to invite Elona so she could meet my family properly." His face momentarily dropped as he remembered their fight as he concluded in a low voice, "And I wanted to do something to make it up to her."

Linda smiled as she said, "Well, you're in luck, Elona's already here, she had a nice dinner with us. A game of basketball sounds nice, but are you sure you wouldn't want to join us for a movie first?"

"She is? She did?" Dracula questioned with surprise as he looked into the suite and saw Elona coming to the door to see who was there.

In a sudden swoosh like a shadow, he was in the suite and swept Elona up into the air in a spin, making her give a brief cry of surprise as he gushed happily,

"Elona, my Beloved Blood Peach! You're alright!"

"Yeah, I'm okay, Drac," she tried to reason and reassure him, "I got some rest and now I'm just hanging out with Johnny and his family. I'm glad to see you, too, as I was hoping to see you today. Do wanna join us for a movie?"

"I wanna play basketball!" Dennis said loudly as he flew into the room, "Hi, Papa Drac, we were gonna watch something called Space Jam, but playing real basketball with you sounds even better."

It was then everyone gathered to the living room, and Dracula smiled to Elona as he held her by her shoulders and she returned the smile that showed she just wanted to be with him.

"A game with Uncle Drac sounds awesome!" Troy said.

"Yeah, let's go!" Connor agreed eagerly, Parker and Mike gave their agreements as well as Johnny said,

"A game sounds like an awesome idea, burn a few calories before a movie, Mom. You did say this family needs to start being more healthy."

"That sounds like a great idea, Dad, we haven't played much since I was a kid. I wanted to teach Dennis how to play, and since he finally got his fangs I guess now's as good a time as any."

"Looks like I'm out voted for a movie," Linda gave a sigh, "Besides, I still haven't found Dennis' present yet."

"You got me a present, Grandma?" Dennis said excitedly with a growing smile on his face to show off his little Vampire fangs as he flew up to her.

"Did I say that out loud?" Linda asked awkwardly as she groaned to herself for letting it slip.

"What is it, huh, Grandma? What is it?" Dennis asked eagerly.

Linda seemed to become a little sad as she said, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I seem to have misplaced it because I can't find it from my luggage. Well, maybe a game together will help jog my memory and it'll turn up."

As the extended family made their way out, Dennis' three cousins snickered amongst themselves as Troy held something behind his back.

* * *

Meanwhile, once more Vlad landed at the edge of the bridge for another visit, this time to check on how things went between Miss Parker and his son, and for the better he hoped.

Vlad then looked to his three Bat Cronies with an icy cold stone hard glare, clear with his lingering disappointment in them from the other night.

"This is as far you're allowed to the hotel, Bela," he said with an icy tone, "And I'm counting on the two of you to keep a closer eye on him. I'd love to hang you by your thumbs with your wings tied up back in the cave, Bela, but as the spell doesn't let you be any further from me than a couple of miles at any time I still have to drag your ass along for my family visits."

"You know, Vlad, ol' buddy, you could widen the range a little," Bela said with clear pseudo-innocence and mocking sarcasm, "Say another mile or two."

He gave a rather creepy wide grin upon him homely beastly face, but Vlad wasn't buying it as he gave an icy glare and a low dangerous growl as he said, "Don't push it, Bela."

With a quiet swoosh of his long black cape, Vlad made his way across the bridge and into the hotel.

When he was out of sight through the revolving door, Bela's face fell into a deep angry frown as he told Carridine and Jiangshi,

"One of you losers'll have to plan with the runt now, seeing as how I get anywhere near that dump."

"What if the old man was just bluffin'?" Jiangshi asked with a bit of a challenge.

Bela took a step to the bridge, but when he stepped onto it his brain became overwhelmed with a terrible migraine and he flew back several feet like a rope yanked him back hard.

As he rubbed at his head, he glared up irately at Jiangshi as he lay on the ground, and the other Crony just shrugged.

Carridine and Jiangshi then flew down to the base of the island, and all Bela could do was grudgingly wait as he crossed his winged arms.

* * *

Dracula and his human in-laws, along with Elona made their way through the main lobby just as Vlad entered, giving everyone a smile as they came together for hellos and hugs.

"So, where's everybody going?" he asked.

"To the gym for a game of trick shot," Mavis said, "Dad and I used to play all the time when I was a kid, and now we're all going to play. Would you like to join us, Grandpa Vlad?"

"Sure, why not," he said with a bit of a shrug, "Might as well try out whatever crazy activities you kids like to do these days. Hey, Drac, I see you and Miss Parker are doing alright, and now that you're better, I'd love to know how your first date really went."

Dracula gave a bit of a nervous and embarrassed laugh as he said, "Well, Dad, it was uh, um…eh…"

"Well, except for the ending," Elona jumped in, "It was wonderful, Vlad. He took me to dinner to a beautiful Chinese restaurant and we saw Romeo and Juliet."

"Ah, Shakespeare," Vlad sighed with a smile as he placed a hand on his chest, "One of the few humans admired even among Vampires, such drama, such passion in his plays. Despite my son's questionable life choices over the last 500 years, I'm glad you still have good taste in art and culture. Gets it from me of course."

"Dad," Dracula groaned, then sharing a laugh with Elona and Vlad.

"Hey, Dennis," Connor called to his cousin, "We found Grandma's present for you, wanna see?"

"Yeah," Dennis said excitedly as Troy revealed a DVD from behind his back.

"You found it, boys?" Linda asked, "Oh, thank you, sweeties, where did you find it?"

"Uh…," Troy moaned out as Dennis looked at his present, a movie with a colorful picture of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and a few of their friends.

While Dennis was happy to receive his present, he was a bit confused by the title and so asked Linda, "Thank you, Grandma, but what does the Penis Gang mean?"

"What!?" Linda nearly shrieked as she tried to cover Dennis' mouth, confusing the little red head and drawing stares from many other guests from around the lobby.

She looked at the DVD case to see the word 'Peanuts' had been crossed out with a black marker and replaced with the inappropriate word in question.

Having been occupied with talking with his dad, Dracula only heard Dennis say the one particular word and blushed a bright red as he shouted,

"Everyone saw my penis in that video!?"

He wrapped himself tightly into his cape as murmurs and growing laughter began to reverberate around the lobby, even among Dracula's friends who just happened to be nearby and the Vampire gave them a scathing look, while the trio of Dennis' cousins began to laugh the loudest. Mavis just looked stunned while Johnny did for a moment as he failed to hide a snicker.

Elona was stunned as well and was wide eyed for a moment as she blushed at the very thought of the word, a tingle went down her spin as she didn't know how to feel at first but then she just snickered through her nose before she just burst out laughing at the whole situation.

At first Dracula was just insulted his new love was laughing at him, but he couldn't help but give a small smile as her laugh just lit up his heart to see her so happy, and it was music to his ears like a wild screech of an owl or even the chime of a crystal bell.

Finally realizing what was going on as Dennis showed Mike and Linda the DVD, Mike began to scold his grandsons, "Boys, that was really inappropriate."

"Ah, c'mon, Grandpa," groaned Troy, "it was just a joke."

"Yeah, it's hilarious," Parker cackled, "Did you hear what Uncle Drac said? Ha, ha, hahh…!"

But Mike and Linda weren't amused; or rather Mike didn't show his amusement as Linda scolded them further,

"For this, young men, you're all in a time out and won't be playing basketball now, and no dessert for the rest of the trip."

Troy, Connor, and Parker all groaned at the unfairness it.

As the family began to once more make their way to the gym for a friendly family game, Vlad leaned to Elona and said low, but still enough for Dracula to hear,

"In case you were wondering, Mr. Tough Guy here gets that from me, too, heh, heh, heh."

Dracula gave a low groan as his face frowned deeply.

Everyone finally made it to the gym, and Dracula had his zombie bellhops bring his human in-laws appropriate attire to wear, jock strap shirts and shorts while he changed in a thick billow of indigo mist into his own basketball outfit, purple jock shirt and shorts with a bat on his shirt, along with purple wrist bands and a sweat band on his head.

With their own Vampire powers, Vlad, Mavis, and even Dennis changed in billows of green, blue, and red and black tinted mist; Vlad into a red and purple version of his son's outfit, Dennis wore a yellow and green outfit with his usual number 4, and Mavis in a sports version of her usual outfit with a sweat band and wrist bands.

Isadora had come and helped Elona into her turquoise exercise outfit with just a snap of her fingers in a puff of green mist to change her clothes.

The sight of Elona once more in her skimpy and revealing exercise outfit made Dracula go wide eyed and begin to feel flushed all over his body.

He began to feel hot on the inside like his own blood was being ignited on fire, as his undead heart began to pound fast in broad chest and ring in his sharp ears as he felt a hardness grow in his loose shorts.

As he watched Elona pull her hair up into a ponytail then do stretches before the game, he gave off some shallow breathes as he watched her closely, her lithe muscles entrancing his sight as he saw her body stretch and roll, the curves of her round buxom chest and smooth sculpted abs upon her curvaceous waist to her wide and round hips.

The hardness in his shorts grew and made him snap out of his trance and look down to see an erection growing in his shorts.

He gasped hard and made an orange basketball appear in his hands and tried to hide it as he held it in front of the growing bump. He looked around as he broke out in a light sweat, but no one seemed to notice as his family changed into jerseys and shorts and did some stretches.

Only Vlad seemed to notice as he asked cheekily, "What's the matter, son? You're sweatin' like Larry the Leech already, scared you're gonna get your pants handed to you?"

This actually snapped Dracula out of his flushed trance and gave his father a stern glare as he frowned a bit and groaned, "Dad."

Everybody gave brief laughs as Johnny then challenged jokingly, "Prepare to get your butt kicked, Drac, 'cause you're goin' down!"

"Oh, we'll see who's getting their butts kicked, Johnny," Dracula challenged with a snark back at his human son-in-law.

After doing some stretches of her own, Linda asked, "So, who's going to be on what team? Should we name our teams?"

Dracula and Mavis gave looks to each other, having now remembered how big their family had gotten.

"Oh, sorry, Linda," Mavis said, "It's always just been me and Dad that played trick shot, but you're right, we should all split into teams."

"Like Vampires versus the humans of the family?" Dracula asked with a silly smile, clearly hoping to be with Mavis on his team.

"No, Dad," Mavis groaned a bit, "There's four of each, and that wouldn't be fair to them. It should be two on each team. I pick…" She gave a sly smirk as she picked her teammates. "…Grandpa Vlad, Mike, and…Elona."

Elona gave a bit of a surprised look at this, but just smiled as she stood by Mavis, Mike, and Vlad.

Dracula's face dropped seeing Elona on the opposing team, but then it became a smug smirk as he saw Johnny had to join him, Linda, and Dennis.

"Wait, don't we need five players for basketball teams?" Elona inquired as she saw the Louchran boys pouting on the benches.

"They're in a time out for that childish prank earlier," Linda said sternly.

"Well, they are children," Elona said with a shrug, "They didn't really hurt anyone by it…and it was kinda funny."

"Please, Grandma," Dennis pleaded, "I didn't mind and I thought it was funny, and I wanna play with my cousins."

He then became a little black bat to give the famous Dracula pouty-bat face to Linda, and at first she was off put by it for a moment but it just melted her heart and she couldn't help but think how adorable it was.

"Oh, okay," she caved with a bit of a groan, making the boys cheer as Dennis changed back to his human form and with a wave of his hand all three of his cousins had jerseys and shorts with the hotel logo on them.

All three breathed low, "Cool."

"Troy's on our team," Mavis said and the emo boy ran to them as Connor joined Dracula's team.

"Wait, what team do I play on?" Parker asked with a bit of a disappointed moan.

"You'll have to wait, Sweetie," Linda said, "You can fill when one of us gets tired or there's a foul."

"Okay," he sulked a bit as he sat back on the benches.

"So," Dracula said loudly as he spun the ball on one finger, rolled it across his arms and shoulders to spin more on his other finger as he continued, "Who's ready for some fun?"

Everyone gave excited cheers as he said, "Okay, the rules are with every trick shot done the teammates build from there, but if the other team grabs the ball trick shots build from there. Since it's two Vampires and three humans to a team, the Vampires only use their magic for their own team and will be penalized if trying to cheat."

Troy snorted low as he whispered low, "He said pee."

Mike gave him a look.

"Alright, let's do this!" Dracula said enthused as bounced the ball a few times, "We'll start with something easy for the family; Off the ceiling, nothin' but web!"

A spider quickly made a webbing net on the hoop as he bounced the ball hard and it hit the ceiling and made a beeline for the hoop before Johnny ran up and caught it as he said, "Off the ceiling, off the wall, nothin' but web!"

Johnny bounced the ball as hard as he could with a grunt but it just missed, but Dracula gave a telekinetic push up and it hit the ceiling then the wall at an angle and went through the net as Connor was able to run and catch as Mavis' team ran around the gym to try and intercept as Connor said, "Off the ceiling, off the wall, off that monster statue, nothin' but web, yeah!"

The ball made its path as Mavis' team set to catch it and she easily caught it as she announced, "Off the benches, nothing but web!"

She bounced it off of the empty benches and it made its way to the hoop and Vlad easily caught it as he said, "Off the benches, off Squinty Eye other there, nothing but web!"

"Boom, Dracka-laka! You're gettin' it, Grandpa!" Mavis cheered, Vlad giving her a wink.

He threw the ball into its path, bouncing off of the poor wandering zombie and it went into the hoop, Elona ran and caught it as she yelled with vigor, "Off the benches, off Squinty Eye, off that gargoyle statue, nothin' but web!"

She bounced it a few times as she ran then threw it with a laugh as it went on its path, with a bit of help from Mavis' TK power as it went through the hoop to then be caught by Mike as he announced in a louder octave of his monotone,

"Off the benches, off the zombie, off the gargoyle, off the wall, nothing but web!"

He gave it a throw and it bounced off of the benches, but it didn't get very far as there came a faint popping noise and Mike gave a pained grunt as he gripped his back.

"Uh-oh, time out, dudes, time out," Johnny called as he made a T with his hands and ran to his dad, "Are you okay, Dad?"

He helped Mike to sit on a far side of the gym benches as Mike said, "I'm sorry, Johnny, I guess I'm out of shape, it's been years since we played ball with your brothers."

"It's okay, Dad," Johnny reassured him, "You sit and rest, maybe you can play later."

"Ugh, I don't think so, Johnny," Mike groaned a bit as he tried to straighten his back.

Elona gave a bit of a flinch at the popping noise as she suggested, "Maybe you need to see a chiropractor, Mr. Louchran."

"Gustav is the best massage therapist in the hotel, maybe he can do something for your back, Mike," Dracula offered.

Mike gave a bit of a skeptical look but just nodded as Squinty Eye helped Mike to the hotel spa.

"Parker, that's means you're on our team," Mavis said, making the youngest Louchran boy run excitedly onto the court.

The game resumed as Mavis bounced the ball a couple of times as the teams spread around, and she threw it as she announced, "Let's take this game up a notch, everybody; off the far wall, through the web, and to Elona, nothin' but web."

The ball made its path and Elona caught it as she announced, "Off the far wall, off the benches, through the net again, to Parker, nothing but web!"

Little Parker tried to catch the ball but got intercepted by Troy as he bounced the ball and announced, "Off the wall, off the benches, and to the extreme with Uncle Drac! Oh, yeah!"

The ball was thrown and made its path with help from Dennis as Dracula caught it, bounced it a few times, and then rolled it in a circle on his arms in a circle as he said competitively,

"Ha! You want extreme, little daring devil do! I'll give you extreme!"

He spun the ball on one finger tip for a few seconds, levitated it in the air as it continued to spin as he simultaneously did a rapid back walkover with such light ethereal and fluidic grace he made the most championed gymnasts look clumsy and uncoordinated, bounced the ball a few times again to spin it on his other finger tip, spin it on his head for a second, then finally he flipped again to balance on one finger tip as the ball spun on the tips of his sneakers; the whole time his sneakers made faint but audible squeaks on the polished floor to the pace of his movements.

Finally he announced as he tossed the ball, "Off the wall, off the benches, off the front desk, off the bar, off the hearse, nothin' but web! Boo-ya! I dare anyone to top that shop, baby!"

Most of the humans just stared at him in confusion and awe, but Mavis just shook her head as she took the ball and announced,

"Off the wall, off the benches, off the front desk, off the bar, off the hearse, off highest chimney, nothin' but web! Boom, Dracka-laka!"

"Okay, now you two are just showing off," Vlad complained, "I'll show you how it's really done; Off the wall, off the benches, off front desk and between the front trees, off the hearse and over the roof, and off the highest chimney, nothing but web!"

The ball bounced and ricocheted on Vlad's announced course, bouncing to and fro until bouncing back into the court and to a smugly smiling Vlad.

"Pttf, I can beat you at that, Dad," Dracula declared as he took the ball, "Off the wall, off the benches, off the front desk, off the trees, over the roof, off the highest chimney, out of the grave yard, nothin' but web! Oh, yeah, beat that!"

"Oh, yeah, Tough Guy?" Vlad challenged, "Watch this, off the wall, off the benches, off the front desk, off the trees, of the hearse, over the roof and off the highest chimney, out of the graveyard, off the mountain, nothing but web! Ha, in your pasty face, raccoon boy."

Dracula just gave a frown and grunted in his throat as he tossed the ball and announced, "Off the wall, off the benches, off the desk and trees, over the roof to the chimney, out of the graveyard, off the mountain, off of Glen, nothing but web! Boo-ya! No way you'll top that shot, Dad, so in your wrinkly, creepy face, Dad, ha, ha!"

As fun as it was seeing the two eldest Vampires try to outdo each other, Mavis finally got a bit fed up with her grandpa and dad forgetting about about the rest of them and the real game they were playing.

"Enough, you guys," she said loudly, "Let's get back to the real game, past the ball to somebody."

"Ha, if you insist, Mavy-wavy," he teased his daughter as he tossed the ball to Dennis and he announced,

"Off the ceiling, off the benches, off the ice cream bar, off the pool, nothin' but web!"

The ball again made its course to then come back in to bounce around into the court, making the two teams scatter to try and catch it.

"I got it, I got it," Elona cried out as she ran to catch it, not noticing another was running to catch it as well.

With swift grace and his judgment clouded over with a focused fervor on the ball, Dracula reached up to catch it. In seemingly slow motion, it appeared to be getting closer to his grasp when he suddenly felt a hard bodily crash into another living creature.

Elona wasn't paying attention to where or who she was running towards when she felt herself crash into another living and semi-warm body.

Everyone flinched as they saw Dracula crash into and fall upon Elona.

Both of them rubbed their heads, groaning a bit in aching pain as their heads swam with a clouded dizziness at having the wind knocked out of them both.

As Elona's vision finally cleared and her senses gradually returned, she finally realized something, or rather someone was atop her pinning her to the floor.

Eyes of deep sapphire ice locked with hers to make the world fade away and cause her mind to forget everything; who she was, where she was, what she had been doing, and what just happened or how it happened.

All she now knew in this moment was the presence of a strong and magnificent masculine form upon her own warm body as she felt a strong heart beat pound against her chest, uncertain if it was her own heart or his, a hot sensation rapidly grew within her body from her chest to her loins.

Dracula became mesmerized by wondrous sky blue eyes so deep and piercing he became certain they had consumed his soul, a bright luminous light set against whatever darkness lingered in his soul to free it from a self inflicted prison even he was unaware of or convinced himself he was unaware of in a personal illusion.

The world disappeared as he felt his body grow hot and he felt a heart pound faster against his chest, whether it was his own or hers he couldn't tell, and yet he didn't care as the feel of her body against his in this way haunted his dreams for months.

A warmth grew within him from his chest to his loins as a new hardness steadily grew in his shorts.

He seemed to slowly bend his head down to kiss her, and her lips seemed ready to receive his until they heard a deep raspy clearing of the throat from Vlad. They both looked up to see everyone staring at them awkwardly, with Vlad giving an amused smirk with his arms crossed and tapping a gnarled finger as he asked with snarky amusement,

"Do you two want to be alone?"

This snapped them back to reality as Dracula pushed himself off of Elona and rather awkwardly helped her up to her feet, giving a rather awkward goofy grin as he stammered,

"Uh, um, sorry about running into you, Elona, I, uh, eh, should've watched where I was running."

Elona fidgeted and panted a bit, her body sweating from the game and the fleeting moment of having Dracula upon her; the feel of his muscular yet slender body, the touch of his smooth skin, the sight of his deep glorious icy blue eyes, the scent of a wild and forbidden darkness mixed with a pleasant musk she could never identify.

Her clouded mind finally came back to reason as she looked around at everyone and stammered a bit, "Uh, it's okay, Drac. I'm okay…"

She felt a slight moistness in her shorts, making her tighten her legs together as she said, "Uh, maybe we could resume the game later, I, uh, I'm kind of worn out."

Dracula realized he too was panting out of breath a bit, whether it was from the game or seeing the rather sexy and enticing image of a moist and sweaty Elona he couldn't tell, but it made him cross his legs a bit to try and hide a growing bulge in his shorts.

"Uh, yes, let's take a rain check on the game, everybody," he said with a bit of a breaking voice, making the family either just look on with blank faces or give amused smirks and shake their heads a bit.

Linda sniffed herself and said, "Hoo, I guess we could use some freshening up, and that was fun, so a rain check doesn't sound like a bad idea, and I'm getting a little tired, too. How about we visit back in Johnny's and Mavis' suite and watch that movie?"

Everyone gave their yes and decided to rest and go watch a movie.

However, Elona had other thoughts as she stammered a bit, "Uh, maybe another time, Mrs. Louchran, I, uh, I need to do something in my suite, so uh, I'll see everyone later."

She seemed to rush off and Dracula watched her with some lingering disappointment, but it was overshadowed as he just had a goofy smile on his face, hypnotized by her movement.

"You comin', D-man?" Johnny inquired, snapping Dracula from his trance.

"Oh, uh, yeah, Johnny," Dracula stammered a bit, "Just, uh, just thinking about something."

"I can see that," Johnny teased, making Dracula give him a hard look.

He stayed a minute or two longer as the rest of his family left the gym as he thought about what just happened with Elona. How he wanted it to happen, but he had to be patient as she wasn't ready and perhaps neither was he.

As he slowly made his way out, a simple thought came to him, something he will happily discuss with her next time he saw her.

****Glen's cave

Quasimodo rubbed his suddenly aching head as his vision swam in a muddled fog, groaning to himself in archaic French.

As his vision gradually cleared, distorted foggy images steadily formed into more coherent shapes and shadows to finally clear into the vision of two familiar giant bat creatures.

"Wow," one of them grunted, "You were really out cold there for a while."

"How long?" Quasimodo growled.

"Just a minute or two," Carridine said, "This bouncy orange ball thing came out of nowhere and bounced all over the place and hit you on the head, and we just stood here waiting for you to wake up."

"And you didn't even try to wake me, you fools?" Quasimodo nearly yelled, "None of you really have brains, do you? It's no surprise why we need each other's help for revenge, Bela."

"I'm Carridine," Carridine groaned insulted.

"Whatever," Quasimodo said dismissively, "You all look alike."

"He's Jiangshi, Bela can't come near the hotel anymore 'cause Vlad did another spell on him or something for the other night."

Quasimodo's face dropped some and became deeply creased as he frowned and grit his teeth tightly.

"More setbacks," he grumbled, "No matter, tell him I'm working on a new plan to free this big brainless oaf and going after Dracula and zat human woman will have to wait."

"Maybe you don't have to wait long," Jiangshi said with a wicked grin as he pointed at something.

Quasimodo turned about to see Glen scratching at his head, but what really caught his eye was the large shackle was loose, and it was the last one that needed to be pounded away.

"How…?" Quasimodo asked low in momentary confusion.

"That orange ball hit it just before it hit you," Carridine said dryly as he crossed his arms.

Quasimodo's face twisted into a dark grin.

" _Monsieur_ Dracula, you fool," he said low to himself, giving a low evil chuckle.


	24. Slices of a New Life Pt 2

Slices of a New Life pt. 2

A few days went by, and while Elona visited a bit more with Johnny's family she barely talked with Dracula in that time.

In her suite she found herself showering often as she felt herself flushing with an overwhelming hotness brought on by a deepening desire she tried to suppress. Until it was brought under control or purged from her thoughts, she couldn't really even look Dracula in the eye.

Perhaps he has become something more than a friend to her, her best friend, even a possible boyfriend; but to be that kind of boyfriend she can never have again.

A couple of days after the Louchrans had left for home, and she came out of the shower after another hot 'power surge', there came a knock at her door.

She quickly put on a robe and answered the door to find Isadora with a note.

"This is for you, Miss Parker," Isadora said, "The master wanted to see you in his office today ASAP."

"Uh, okay," Elona said with some confusion, "Thanks, Isadora."

The witch left with a curtsy upon her broom, Elona just looked at the note between her fingers.

A couple hours later, after changing into a new professional tailored business suite Isadora had made for her, Elona went to find Dracula in his office. Why he wanted her to dress this way and even asked her to bring a copy of her old resume in the note really confused, intrigued, but also concerned her a bit.

Arriving at his door, she knocked politely then heard him say, "Come in."

He was at his desk working on paperwork, then looked up to see Elona as he gave a smile and placed a feather quill in an old ink jar and said,

"Ah, Elona, wonderful to see you again, have a seat."

"Hi, Drac," she said with a smile, but still felt a bit awkward as she sat down and handed him her resume she asked, "Why did you want to see my old job resume? I haven't really worked in months."

He just looked over her resume with a seemingly critical eye as he mumbled, "Assistant archivist at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry for five years; interned three years before that and a few cashiering jobs while volunteering at the Museum of Art and a nature park during and after college; Majored in History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Sciences and Medicine, or HIPS for short…heh, heh, heh, you've already got the best hips I've ever seen." Elona gave his a look, and he just cleared his throat. "Ahem…with a minor in Astronomy and a joint in Humanities." Dracula gave a bit of a raised eye brow at this. "Hm, there's a class called 'Humanties'? Go figure. And it looks like you were really busy in college."

Elona just gave a bit of an awkward smile as she said, "Yeah, my parents wanted me to have a lot of options for my future, but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish all those classes, even though I wanted to. But I still graduated and got my Bachelor's degree as I finished the required classes and I still hoped to get a PhD."

Her face dropped a bit, but she pushed such old and painful thoughts away as she asked, "But if this means what I think it means, Drac, does it mean I don't qualify for a job here, or over qualify, or what? Is this how you hired Johnny here?"

Dracula gave a look of momentary confusion but tried to reassure her, "No, no, not at all, Elona, my dear sweetclaw…"

Elona gave another look, which he pretended not to notice.

"…actually I hired Johnny not long after Dennis was born, mostly at the insistence of his dad as he pestered the poor boy about it."

Elona became a bit surprised and confused as she asked, "So, Johnny's job here isn't real, just some kind of sham or something?"

Dracula went wide eyed and lightly sweated as he stammered, "No, no, no, of course it's real…just uh, just an unexpected addition or um…y'know, a kind of new position to show how progressive things have gotten…so yes, a new position for him to show how progressive the hotel is now, not some cheap excuse to keep him here just to keep my Mavy-Wavy happy."

He cleared his throat loudly as Elona gave him a bit of a hard look.

"Something told me this is how you would've wanted to do it this way," he said with sincerity, making Elona soften her poster a bit as she saw in his eyes he meant it, "and starting today I'm hiring you as my uh…, Junior receptionist co-assistant-in-training."

Elona just frowned a bit as she gave him a look, but just scoffed as she said, "You don't need to sugar coat it, Drac, it's a secretary job, and I don't mind it too much, but I'm just worried it'll make things awkward, or rather awkward with us. I mean, there's a rather infamous thing with bosses having uh, very inappropriate kind of relationships with their secretaries."

Dracula just rolled his eyes at this as he held out his hands for Elona and just held them as he said with a bit of his own scoff, "Pfft, forget whatever bat crap idea that is, or what everybody else might think. I just want you to be comfortable and happy here, and I hope having a job here will make you happy. I guess I also don't want you to think I think so uh, well, lowly of you." Elona gave a bit of an insulted look, but it past in a moment. "You also said you don't feel up to being an assistant manager yet, so I just thought maybe something like this could be something you'd be okay with as a start. So, what do you say, do you want the job?"

Elona felt a smile grow in her pretty face and her spirits rise a bit as this almost too good to be true offer before her, but they fell a bit as she said, "Absolutely, Drac, I'm so flattered, I mean thanks so much for the job offer."

Dracula's face dropped a bit as he sensed a 'but' coming.

"But, I'm just worried about all the other details to work out…"

Dracula held up a hand to silence her and just said, "Don't worry about it, I've already worked out some stuff; all that humany legality stuff to let you be a resident and work here and stuff. I had to do it with Johnny, so it's nothing I can't handle."

"Okay," Elona said with a small sigh of relief, "But, what are its benefits? How much does it pay? Do I need to open an account with the bank in town? When do I start?"

"You start right now if you want, or whenever you're ready," Dracula said happily, "And don't worry about that other stuff for now, we'll work on them when we need to."

Elona and Dracula then set to getting paperwork done and in order, and when it was all taken care of Dracula then helped her to begin a new day on a new job, even if the name 'Junior receptionist co-assistant-in-training' wasn't all that glamorous sounding.

* * *

The next day Elona felt both nervous and excited as she was going meet Dracula at the front desk to begin her training and her first official day on the job.

Behind the front desk she saw only a couple of zombie bellhops and the monster Leonard she met when she had first arrived.

"Hello, Miss Elona," Leonard greeted with a courteous smile, "How have you enjoyed your stay at Hotel Transylvania?"

"It's been wonderful, Leonard," she said with a growing smile mixed with nervousness and excited anticipation of her new job, "In fact, I'm meeting Drac here to start training for my new job as his 'co-assistant-receptionist-in-training' or something. It sounds ridiculous, but I'm just glad I can start a new paying job again."

"That's great," Leonard said with a smile, "But the boss isn't here right now. But, if you're going to meet him here, I don't see why you don't wait with us, maybe we could use your help."

"Uh, okay," Elona said with a bit of uncertainty, as she then saw two more zombies come behind the front desk.

She gave them the best polite smile she could muster as she somehow remembered their names, "Hi, Porridge Head, hi, Squinty Eye."

"Hi," they groaned to her.

"Do you mind if I just watch and shadow you guys while I wait for Drac?" she asked.

"Sure," Leonard said with a smile, "Some guests just arrived to check in, and I think I got the hang of this computer thing since you first checked in, Miss Elona, so this should be easy."

Elona went a bit wide eyed as she saw several families of difference kinds of new monsters come through the revolving door, and wracked her brain to name them all; there were fishlike humanoids that weren't Gillmen but more beautiful, like maybe Sirens or even Merpeople; she was even intrigued by a family of obvious werecats with a litter around twenty or more playful kittens just as energetic but less destructive as Wayne and Wanda's werepups; there also came a family of majestic centaurs with two adorable small colts; and finally Elona recognized what had to be a family of ethereal Banshees as they spoke with clear but old Irish brogues as they chatted like they were old friends with a family of humanoid creatures with equine and swampy aquatic features and spoke clear with thick old Scottish brogues.

Elona could only look on in amazement as she only knew most of these creatures to exist in myths she read about as a hobby of studying about myths, legends, and folklore from around the world.

"Hello, welcome to Hotel Transylvania," Leonard greeted to the first monster family in line, the family of merpeople and/or Sirens, "Name, please."

"Seaward, a room for six, please, and the closer to the water, the better," the merman said, and Leonard set to checking them in but his less than nimble fingers pushed the wrong buttons upon the keyboard, making the computer give an error ding.

"Oops," he gasped low, "Uh, sorry, Mr. Seaward, but it's saying you aren't registered. Maybe it's under another name."

"No," the merman said a bit hard, "Check again, it's Seaward, S-E-A-W-A-R-D."

"Uh, Leonard, why don't you let me give it a try," Elona offered, "I know you're trying, but I think you need more practice with typing."

Leonard just shrugged as he allowed Elona to take the computer. Somehow she found the hotel's reservations system, but looked to Leonard to know where to type in guest information as she did the typing.

"Seaward, room for six, and there we go," Elona said with a smile as she watched Squinty Eye hand the family the room key and Porridge Head and a few other zombie bellhops took their luggage.

She then helped the rest of the new guests check in; unsurprisingly the Werecats, for that was their real name, got a family room on one of the higher floors as cats love to be high; the Kelpie couple wanted the Honeymoon Suite as they were on their Honeymoon, which surprised Elona momentarily the hotel even had one, but then realized she shouldn't be surprised about it. The Banshee family got a room on one of the higher floors as well, with a view of the mountains as it reminded them of home, and it was near a children's play area as the mother had a teenager, a preteen, and an adorable six-year-old looking little girl that gave Elona a cute smile; finally the centaur family got a room on the one of the lower floors so as to easily come and go to the nearby forest to graze.

When all of the guests were given keys to their rooms, Elona felt pretty good about having helped Leoneard and taken a bit of initiative. She was certain Dracula would be proud of her.

She then spent a bit of time looking around the back of the check in desk, thinking maybe this will be easier than she at first thought as the computer system wasn't so different from what she had used in the museum archives, as well as the filing system of paper hardcopies in file folders in cabinets, and drawers with extra keys.

To pass the time she as she waited for Dracula to arrive, Elona look around the back of the check in desk to familiarize herself with how and where things were kept and organized. Even here she could tell Dracula must have a meticulous system with a keen eye for detail and perfection, no doubt due to an almost obsessive compulsive level which she didn't blame him for.

A seemingly short fifteen minutes later, a rather frustrated and irate looking Mr. Seaward and his family came walking hard up to the check in desk to then slap the key down rather hard as he gave a hard look.

"Uh, hello, Mr. Seaward," Leonard greeted with a bit of an awkward smile, "Is there a problem?"

"You gave us the wrong room key," he said with a controlled hard tone, "The number on this key says it's for one the higher rooms in the hotel, and we can't go that high, my kids can't be far from natural water for long yet, they're too young. When we finally found it, it smelled like something peed in there, like it's full of ammonia or something, we couldn't breathe in there."

Elona gave a momentary look of concerned confusion as she watched poor Leonard just stammer before he could handle the problem as the werecat family then came up to the front desk, also not looking very happy.

"Excuse me," Mr. Werecat demanded, "The room key you gave us is the wrong one, it goes to a room that's full of water, and it smells fishy in there, and while I love fish as much as much as the next werecat, it got my kittens over excitable."

Mr. Werecat pointed to his over active and now hyper litter of werekittens as some scratched on furniture, played around on loose tassels or other string like objects, or playfully chased smaller monsters, wrestled with each other or even werepups, or chased or got chased by werepups. Their mother was clearly having a hard time getting them under control, and clearly getting stressed out by the whole ordeal.

"Claire, Candence, stop scratching the hotel furniture!" Mrs. Werecat yelled to her litter, "Cynthia, Cendric, Collin, come down and stop climbing the walls before you hurt yourselves! Carlos and Clayton, you leave those dogs alone! Crystal stop chewing on those wires, you'll hurt yourself! Clifford, help me get these kids under control!"

"In a minute, Cleo," he yelled a bit frustrated.

"Excuse me, I was here first," Mr. Seaward berated, "And there's no reason to be insulting about my family."

"Can it, fish face!" Clifford yelled at Mr. Seaward, "We've traveled a long way to get to this hotel, and I have to get my litter down for a nap!"

The kittens heard this word and started whining and having tantrums they didn't want a nap, which made the three little mergirls with their mermaid mother start balling, too.

"You don't think we didn't travel a long way, fleebag?!" Mr. Seaward shouted back, "These legs are aching and we've been out of salt water for hours, and you're not the only one with cranky kids!"

He pointed to his own small fraternal triplet daughters as they began to cry.

"Cetus, stop fighting with him," his mermaid wife pleaded as she held her crying children, "Shh, shh, it's okay, my sweet starfishes. Calm down, Aqua, we're getting a room, daddy's taking care of it and you all can have treats okay, Pearl and Nixie?"

"See, poor Ianessa can barely keep it together before we got here," Cetus yelled.

"Oh, and my wife doesn't look stressed to you, fins for brains?" Clifford yelled back.

The crying merchildren only calmed down slightly as the merman and werecat argued as Ianessa then noticed Elona watching and she inquired,

"Hey, aren't you the one who check us in?"

Uh, I…" Elona stammered but she got interrupted.

"Yeah, the human at the computer," Cetus said.

"Yes, Miss Elona is the new assistant…" Leonard began to explain, but Cetus jumped in,

"The assistant manager? Why would the Count hire a human to be the assistant manager?"

Elona couldn't answer in her growing hesitation.

"Never mind," Cetus dismissed, "Can you just straighten this out, considering it's your fault anyway? My family really needs to get hydrated soon."

Elona sympathized with the stressed and drying merman, she truly did, but as the blame sunk in she couldn't help but get mad and defensive as she scolded,

"Wait, my fault? I was just typing what Leonard was telling me, I was only trying to help because he's not that good at typing yet."

"You still got us the wrong room key, lady," Cetus snapped, "and you're the assistant manager, so you have to fix this and get us the right keys."

"I'm _not_ the assistant manager, I just started working here today," Elona said defensively.

"What?" Clifford yelled, "That's just great, the Count must be losing his brains to hire humans to his hotel, much less allow them in. All your kind does is mess things up for the rest of us, all that overrated damn shiny technology and human stupidity and it's gotten to Dracula of all monsters. Everything was better before everything changed and it's your kind's fault, you're nothing but a bunch of fat, savage, deranged creatures with empty heads full of nothing but moronic stupidity."

"Yeah," Cetus agreed, "Humans are nothing but a plague to monster kind worst than anything on this entire planet, and you just proved it, you freakin' human bitch."

Elona wanted to yell back at them, but the insults they threw at her just brought back old pain that churned in her stomach as she tried to push it away, knowing in the back of her mind it wasn't true. But it was a losing battle within herself as she felt her eyes well up a bit with growing tears as she tried to keep a hard blank face.

In the yelling and thrown insults, no one noticed a certain Vampire arrive to the front desk to then demand,

"What is going on here? I won't have such language used at my employees."

"Count," Clifford said as he finally noticed him, "This stupid human mixed up our room keys, and she won't do anything to fix it."

He looked to see Elona behind the check in desk nearly on the verge of held back tears with her lip quivering slightly, and he could sense she was struggling to remain calm but fear welled within her. For a moment he looked at her with a disappointed and hard stern look, but it softened as their eyes spoke volumes to each other in a single look as nothing else was needed.

"She's so incompetent you should fire her," Cetus complained, "And you, Count, you yourself should know better than to hire humans at a monster hotel."

Dracula gave them both a stare so hard and so cold it silenced both the complaining werecat and merman, enough so they both felt icy chills go down their spines.

Dracula was then behind the check in desk in a graceful fluidic whoosh like a shadow to stand next to Elona as he said to them in a near icy tone, "It looks to me this is a simple misunderstanding, and if your keys were mixed up I can easily fix that. There was a similar incident for plenty of other guests not too long ago, for both monsters and humans. But who I hire to my hotel now is not your concern, and I won't have guests insulting them because of one mistake as they happened even before I allowed humans here."

Clifford and Cetus didn't really know what to think or say as they were just wide eyed and silent as Dracula spoke, even though both were slightly aghast that Dracula seemed to be taking the human woman's side even as they saw Dracula put an arm around Elona as he continued to coldly if reasonably say,

"So let's calm down and I will straighten out this mix up and make your stay here a comfortable one, but I expect better behavior towards my employees, and they will be treated with the same respect you as guests expect. However, I will be having a serious talk with Miss Parker here about what happened."

Elona looked up at him a bit fearfully at those last words and could only watch in frozen silence as she watched him fix her mistake as he checked the computer and even made records in the old maroon hotel registration book and even had Cetus and Clifford trade their room keys and were even given extra ones that hadn't been mixed up. This put Cetus' and Clifford's minds at ease, and they thanked Dracula.

When the monster families left, Dracula calmly asked Elona, "What happened here? I haven't begun training you, and this mess happens."

She knew he was disappointed in her, and she could only look him in the eye with shame and fear as she said, "I'm sorry, Drac, I was only trying to help. I only offered to do the typing for Leonard because he was having trouble typing."

Dracula looked at Leaonard, who was still there, and the yellow skinned monster said timidly, "She's right, sir, I told her where to type information in and I still have trouble using the computer. I thought I got everything right."

Dracula took a look at the computer, but since he still knew little about how it worked he summoned Clifton to take a look and even called Johnny to come take a look at it soon.

He also decided Leonard was better off continuing to work as a bellhop instead of at the check in desk and said he could go.

Dracula took Elona aside as he said, "I know you were only trying to help, Elona, but if you don't know how to do something, you need to ask me first."

"I know, I'm so sorry," Elona said meekly as her head dropped in shame, "I guess this means my new job is over before it's even started. I'll go pack my things."

Dracula gave a bit of a raised eyebrow as he asked confused, "What do you mean?"

"Maybe this was a mistake," she sighed with sadness, "What if it had been worse? What if I keep messing up? You'll have to fire me and kick me out of your hotel just to save face with your guests and keep your business going, so I'll save you the trouble now and just leave."

This actually scared Dracula for a moment, the thought of her leaving and not with the same reasons as before. But it evaporated in a millisecond as he smiled at her and held her chin to look her deep into the eye as he said reassuringly,

"Elona, you're being ridiculous. Are you afraid I'm going to kick you out of my hotel, or even my afterlife because of one silly mistake? Believe me, I've had to handle far worse problems, plenty you must remember when you first came here, even before Johnny came."

"Really?" she choked a bit as she tried to hold back glassed over tears.

"Yes, really," he said with a small laugh and gently pecked her lips, but then got a bit serious again as he said, "Of course, this means you'll get a stern warning from me so here it is; don't do anything in the hotel unless you know how to do it."

His was momentarily stone faced, which sent a brief chill down Elona's spine, but then they just broke out laughing with each other as Elona wiped some tears from her eyes.

However, she knew he was right and she still had a lot to learn.

He then asked, "What made you think I'd just kick you out like that?"

Elona seemed embarrassed as she explained, "It's something I've tried to stop doing to myself, but whenever I got a new job, I always thought the worst would happen to me when I first messed up, like it was the end of my life or something and I wasn't worth anything. A blow to shaky self-esteem issues, I guess."

"Well, stop it," he scolded with only half a tease, "I know you better than that, you're a strong, intelligent, and good person that's so much more, and it's why I love you."

Elona was surprised by those words as she felt her confidence grow and her spirits began to sour again as a big smile formed on her lovely face, and all she could say was,

"Thank you, Drac, thank you so much. I love you, too."

This just warmed his heart to hear her say this, and they just embraced.

For the rest of the day, Dracula then trained her as best he could, with help from Johnny later in the afternoon how to work as a receptionist at the front desk.

Even with the experience of messing up, and knowing it may happen again, Elona felt secure knowing Dracula will be there for her and somehow it made her the happier than she'd been in a long time.

A new home, a new job. A new life.

* * *

A few days later, Elona was finally given a day off and while Dracula was busy working in his office for the time being, Elona decided to visit the library as she hadn't been there for a while.

She looked through the books upon the countless shelves within the seemingly massive library, wondering where to start or even just what to read. As she just casually strolled through and looked at various titles, something rather unusual yet somehow not so surprising caught her eye; an old copy of the very book by none other than Bram Stoker.

She had avoided actually reading the book for most of her life for obvious reasons, plus she just never had the interest. Yet now, since she met and knows the genuine one in real life, on and off for some months she began to wonder how much of it was true or even accurate even though Dracula himself claimed it was full of inaccuracies and human misconceptions.

She momentarily examined the book cover, an old but elegant 19th century leather book cover, and made her way to a comfortable couch and began to read.

It didn't seem so bad at first, as it was just about the point of view of some guy named Johnathan Harker, which made her laugh a bit as she knew a Johnny. It was also a bit hard to follow at times as the writing was more formal sounding and well detailed in its narrative, making Elona reread a sentence or paragraph sometimes but she was still able to mostly follow the story simply enough.

A while later, Elona didn't know nor was aware of how long, the story began to get a bit more creepy and Elona tried to ignore chills in her blood and a tingle in her spine, even though she expected this at some point. She was reading a scene where the titular character was drawing ever closer to his victim…closer…closer…

"Elona," a familiar voice gently called as there came a light tapping on her shoulder.

"Aaahh," she screamed in chilled fear, flinging the book clear across the library from her hands and just started flailing her arms about as she stood up in a near panic as though to flee from whatever threat dared to stock her.

She then whirled around as she breathed heavily to see it was only the real Dracula she knew, wide eyed with surprised confusion.

"Well, 'Aaahh' to you, too," he mocked her scream as he waved his hands, "What're you reading that's making you all screamy and crazy arms flinging?"

Elona held her chest as she tried to take some deep calming breathes while Dracula levitated the book to himself in a ball of indigo mist.

Seeing the title, he gave Elona a bit of a look with a raised eyebrow as she stammered, "I, uh, I was just uh, I was curious…and it was getting…really intense…"

Dracula just gave a bit of a look to her then examined the book again.

"I was just wondering how much of it was true, but if you want me to stop reading it…" she mumbled a bit.

He just handed the book back to her as he said with a bit of a smile, "Well, not all of it's true, or even accurate." His face dropped a bit. "But there is some stuff in there that I'm embarrassed by, even ashamed of."

Elona just looked at him with a bit of sadness, but he just offered with kindness, "Would you like me to read the rest of it with you, tell you what really happened?"

"Wouldn't that be a little weird, the real life Dracula reading the book with me?"

"Do you want it to be weird?" he teased, "I could just tell about what really happened as far as you've read."

She smiled as they sat down together and he put an arm around her and she showed him where she was; a scene with the Dracula character of the book about to save Harker from the three sinister vampire women.

Dracula seemed to blush a bit at this as he saw Elona give him a look mixed with curiosity as well as an underlying judgment of suspicion.

He gave a small sigh as he began, "Well, it isn't something I'm all nostalgic about, in a rotten nut shell that Harker guy was just some solicitor helping me with stuff to buy a new home in England, so that's more or less true, and he was a mostly decent guy if kind of absent minded and a little overly curious to make a ghost cat proud. It was one of those times I just really needed to get away from my dad, before he got hip and with it. Anyway, I thought the farther away the better, and I heard England was a nice place and it was going to be many new places for me to have a home away from home, because you know, we aristocracy types like to have lots of personal chateaux around the world…"

Elona cleared her throat as she said, "Drac, you're babbling."

He went silent for a moment, then took a small breath as he continued with a bit of a sheepish tone, "And I know you're wondering about the girls. (Deep Sigh) Please, I know what your ex was like, and just know it was a _very_ long time ago and I was young…ger and foolish and just uh, I, uh, oh boy…yes, I was something of an over eager lady's man, and entitled, or so I thought at the time.

"Their names were Sandra, Adriana, and Lorraine, and they were ladies from overly important Vampire families my dad chose for me to choose a wife from, but they were vain and overly entitled and stuff. But they still had their uh, better more enduring qualities."

He blushed at these last words, making Elona raise an eyebrow of suspicion but decided to let it go.

"So before you met Martha, Vlad was pushing for you to get married to a Vampire woman from a noble family?"

Dracula gave a sigh as he continued, "Yes, but I wanted to uh, y'know court them all at the same time and have flings with them instead. But it was short. And also to be clear, as I saved that Harker guy from having their wily ways with him it wasn't a human baby I gave them, it was a pig."

Elona just gave a momentary raised eyebrow, but just gave a small scoff and shrugged.

"They got all wacky and loony saying how I was no fun and was just jealous they were playing with a human and not me, and even resented me for never really loving any of them. It was true to a point as I just wanted to make my own choices and I still needed Harker for business. So some more stuff happened and do you want me to go on?"

Elona thought for a moment, then said, "Well, I haven't gotten this far into the book yet, but I have wondered about why you were interested in the women called Mina and Lucy."

Dracula seemed to blush and break out in a light greasy sweat at this, but he gathered his thoughts as he tried to explain through a stammering broken voice,

"Uh, well, eh, like I said I was an overly enthusiastic lady's man, and uh…I was selfish and arrogant and entitled at the time. I mostly saw them as just more conquests, but let's just say before Martha it was Mina who began to make me see some things differently."

He looked at her with a bit of shame and fear as he saw her give him a look of brief disappointment and a hint of judgment, so he continued quickly,

"I, uh, charmed and had some stolen kisses with Miss Lucy, but I was really interested in Miss Mina as there was just something about her that drew me to her. There was a grace, a strength and passion mixed with compassion in her I wouldn't see again until Martha…and then you."

Elona's face softened, then gave a small smile at this.

"I began to realize how lonely I really was, and I truly wanted more in my afterlife than just carrying on my dad's Vampire legacy and stuff. Do you want more spoilers and I'll tell you more that isn't in the book, or what?"

Elona closed the book and just cuddled up and hugged closely to him as she said, "I think that's far enough for now. You're a different person now, and like you said it was a very long time ago so it doesn't matter anymore."

"You're too good for me," he said with a smile as he held her close.

They just stayed this way in true happy bliss for a while until Mavis appeared, flying in as a bat and landed in front of them in a puff of blue mist to her true form and smiled at them.

"Hey, there you guys are," she said, "I've been looking all over for you."

"Hey, Mavy, what's up?" Dracula asked with a smile.

"Johnny and I have been talking, and you two have been working so hard lately we thought you needed another date," Mavis said with a smile, "But we also thought it should be a double date with the four of us. What do you guys say, is it a good idea?"

She smiled wide hoping they liked the idea, and Dracula smiled at this as he said, "I think it's a wonderful idea, Mavy. We'll all get together next Saturday and spend time together, like a family. But Elona wants pizza and a movie, and no alcohol, those are my conditions."

"Deal," Mavis smiled and flew away.

Elona gave Dracula a bit of a look, but he just gave her a look of finality but still smiled charmingly to her.


	25. Slices of a New Life Pt 3: Double Date

Slices of a New Life pt. 3: Double Date

The Saturday of the double date came and everybody was ready for a day in town.

Due to Dracula's and Mavis' Vampiric nature, Johnny and Elona were sure to bring along a few essential necessities to protect them from the harshness of the Sun if needed such as bottles of sunblock, wide brim hats, and even extra wide umbrellas.

"So what're we doing in town today?" Elona asked with curiosity and excitement.

"Johnny and Dad said we're going to a 'double feature' at the movies," Mavis said with some confusion and excitement of her own, "I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but I look forward to it."

"We're going to see two movies at the theatre," Elona said, "I wonder what we're going to see."

They soon met the men by a hotel hearse, Dracula's cape cocooned his figure while his face was stark white with sunblock and he wore a wide rainbow umbrella hat, which Elona tried not to laugh at.

With Johnny at the wheel, he drove them into town and to the movie theatre to see a double feature of Goosebumps, which Elona never even read the original books it's supposed to be based on; and the returning blockbuster hit Avatar as its sequel was rumored to be coming out later next year.

They bought two large popcorns to share and sodas, except Dracula would only let Elona get an ice tea to drink with no exceptions.

Some hours later they came out smiling as they talked about what they thought about the movies.

"If that Goosebumps movie was supposed to be scary, I don't see it," Mavis said, "It was too hilarious, I still can't stop laughing."

"It was never my thing, either, Mavis," Elona said, "But you're right, it was pretty funny and still fun. Actually my brother, Sean, always read the book, so I think he'd enjoy the movie."

"Oh yeah, the books were awesome," said Johnny, "I think I collected them all when I was a kid, I think they're still at home at my parents in Santa Cruz."

"Eh, it was okay," Dracula shrugged, "But I got some laughs out of it, even with how some humans still see monsters sometimes. I actually see a bit of us in that Avatar movie; now that was amazing."

"Oh yeah," Mavis breathed, "That alien world was so beautiful, and it was so angering how the bad humans wanted to destroy it for some gray rock, but I couldn't help but smile when Jake saved the day, and when the princess came to save him and accepted him in his human form. It does remind me a little of us, Johnny."

They embraced and smiled to each other as Elona said, "I always like the movie, too, even though it's 'save the rainforest' message is a little over in the face, but it still rings true today and I think is even more important than ever."

Dracula put an arm around her and smiled as he said, "Yes, it is, but I think it's also about tolerance and accepting differences. That one human soldier almost reminded me of the humans from 135 years ago, but I was glad to see there were ones who sided with the uh…, what were the giant blue cat people called again?"

"Na'vi."

"Yeah, that, it reminds me of how good we have it now, humans liking monsters and stuff. So, I liked it, even if it was pretty weird sometimes. But enough babbling about movies, Johnny said we're going someplace he said reminded him of a cheesy chucking mouse or something, but for grown-ups."

Johnny just rolled his eyes as he said, "Something like that, it's a place called Bats 'n' Wolves, and it's got pizza, ales, and all kinds of arcade games, and some are supposed to be really kinky. Oh! And even a stage for their own talent night or karaoke."

Dracula just gave a bit of a raised eyebrow, while Elona wasn't sure if she should smile or blush with amusement or embarrassment.

The place wasn't too far so they could walk their way to it, and made it as twilight fell.

Inside it was loud with game noises and people talking loudly or shouting with excitement as they played games or watched a ball game on a big screen flat TV; game lights flashed and blinked as far as the eye could see; off to the side was an eating area with booths and a bar with 13 backed stools and behind it was a kitchen where the wonderful smell of food permeated the air; and set in a diagonal corner from the seating area was a small stage with a stool and its own karaoke machine.

It looked so big Dracula thought it had to be as big as his hotel lobby.

"So, what should we do first?" Johnny asked with an enthusiastic smile.

"Let's get some pizza," Elona said, "I'm starving."

At the bar they readied to place their orders as the rather attractive young cashier gave a flirtatious smile to Elona as he offered,

"Would you care to try the best home brewed ale in town, sweetheart? It's on the house."

Although uncomfortable, Elona gave her best polite smile as she prepared to say no thank you, but Dracula jumped in as he scowled with seething jealousy and over protectiveness as he said with a hard edge,

"Absolutely not, no alcohol for her in any way, shape, or form; no, no, and a final no."

The cashier eyed Dracula but tried to remain professional as he said, "I believe it's the lady's choice, sir, and I don't think one pint would hurt."

Dracula glared at him with an icy cold gaze that made the air chill around them several degrees and sent a chilling tingle down the cashier's spine as he said in a cold tone, "Yes, it will, and I want her pizza to be gluten-free, whatever the heaven that's supposed to be."

The cashier was about to timidly argue back, but Elona interjected as she said calmly and politely as possible, "It's okay, he's just a little over protective of me, and he's right as I can't have alcohol because I have a, uh, condition and I can't drink."

"Oh, I see," the cashier sighed with sympathy, the air steadily warming up again, "So, what can I get you, folks?"

"How about just plain root beers all around, and individual pizzas?" Johnny suggested.

"I want to share a big one with you guys," Mavis said, "I don't mind if its half Vampire stuff and half humany stuff, I want to try it."

"I want a salad to go with it, too," Elona said.

So it was agreed, they all got a family combo of a salad, breadsticks (no garlic of course) with ranch dressing to dip in, a jumbo pizza half pepperoni and sausage and half scorpion and mosquito, while for individual slices Elona got her favorite of Hawai'ian, which Dracula found intriguing, Johnny got a meat lovers, Mavis a worm and mushroom, and finally Dracula got a centipede and snake skin with Blood Beater red sauce.

A few games they played while waiting for their orders were mostly classic types, such as pinball, which Johnny loved to play and was almost a professional at as he spent a lot of time after school procrastinating at the nearest neighborhood arcade; Mavis loved the flamboyant and various games with spinning wheels which she unleashed her Vampire strength upon making the wheels spin so rapidly they almost came off their hinges; Elona's favorite game was the Skee-ball where a small ball was thrown up a lane and it landed in holes to gain points, like a smaller version of bowling; and Dracula surprisingly got into video games where he shot at invading aliens, almost seeing the reason humans used to hunt monsters, though these were still bad memories for him.

One rather kinky game they all played was measuring about how much sexual stamina they had; Johnny showed he was above average, which made Mavis shake her head as she knew he was far better but Johnny blushed in embarrassment in front of his father-in-law nonetheless; Elona was reluctant to play as she doubted it would be good anyway, but they just pestered her to try it and she did reluctantly. When she did it, it said she was at a hot high level like a Vivacious Vixen, which just made her blush a bright red and made Dracula smile at the thought and try to keep his libido in control. For him, it said he was On Red Hot Fire! which made Elona blush brighter and Mavis and Johnny just look on wide eyed, but Dracula was just proud of himself.

From almost all of them, they won a large number of tickets for prizes, which as first confused the Vampires until they went to the vending counter and could pick out a variety of prizes.

They decided to pick them out later as their food was finally ready and they sat down at a private booth just to chat for a time.

"This place is so much fun," Mavis said with a big excited beaming smile showing her white fangs, "It's giving me ideas to improve on the gaming room at the hotel."

"Mavy, not your hotel improvement ideas again," Dracula groaned with a bit of a smile, "I thought you out grew that after I was away a few years ago."

"Why, what happened a few years ago?" Elona asked curiously.

"It was before I met Johnny," Mavis said, "Dad got nominated to be the Grand Vamp on the Vampire World Council for a short term, so while he was away I saw my chance to try and make the hotel 'more fun' with a bunch of ideas I had, but mostly they just got me and my friends into a lot of trouble."

"Like what?"

Mavis smiled at memories of her 'teenage' years as she said, "Like this one time I wanted to get a five skull review from a famous gremlin reviewer for Screamcation Magazine, and I accidently let some werepups loose and being as wild as they are I spent a good while looking for them, but not without having to deal with uh, another unexpected complication."

Dracula gave a bit of a suspicious raised eyebrow as Elona just asked, "What kind of complication?"

Mavis was momentarily shifty eyed as she said, "Uh, well, let's just say an unexpected and rather trouble making guest made her way into the hotel."

Elona laughed low, then asked, "What else happened, and what happened to your friends?"

"Well, we still keep in touch, but they have their own afterlives now," Mavis said fondly, "But years ago we got into all sorts of trouble, like trying to scare humans for Bad Friday, but I freaked out instead over a diaper being changed."

Elona, Johnny, and Dracula just burst out laughing.

"Hey," Mavis yelled with indignity, "I was only 114 then, wouldn't you freak out, too?"

"Mavy," Dracula laughed, "I changed your nappy all the time when you were a baby, and you were just so cute; and you changed Denisovich before he potty trained."

"Yeah, well…it was freaky…and so disgusting…uggh," Mavis shuttered at the memory, "She had to touch it."

"Well, we humans aren't as lucky to have telekinetic powers like Vampires," Johnny shrugged with his ever easy going way, "So what new parent wouldn't want an awesome power like that?"

"So true," Dracula smiled a bit with self pride.

Elona was about to ask what Bad Friday was when she realized something strange.

"Wait, did I hear right? Drac left a 114 year old in charge of an entire ginormous hotel? 114 is a teenager for a Vampire, right?"

"Yeah," Mavis sighed, "But as much as I wanted to be in charge while Dad was away, he left Aunt Lydia in charge."

Dracula just gave a groan at the mention of Lydia's name as Elona asked, "Who's Lydia, the wife or lady friend of another friend I haven't met yet?"

"No, she's my Dad's older sister."

Elona gave Dracula a surprised look as she gasped, "You have a sister?!"

Dracula just rolled his eyes as he sighed with a growing discomfort as Elona gasped more, "I've told you about my siblings a lot, and you never mentioned you had a sister. Is she ever coming to visit like Vlad, when do I get to meet her?"

"I don't think so," Dracula sighed with a bit of sadness, "Lydia and I hardly talk, even while she ran the hotel for me, and we haven't spoken much since."

Elona gave a look of sympathy as she said, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Why?"

"She's really old school, almost as bad as my dad was," Dracula said.

"She was always about _maintaining_ _order and perfection_ ," Mavis said as she imitated Lydia's thick Transylvania accent, "a big stake in the mud. She would have werepups if she saw how things at the hotel are now."

They all laughed bit, the Elona said, "Well, who knows, I still hope to meet her someday. I'm also curious about you being the Grand Vamp, Drac, somehow that fits you."

"Trust me, it wasn't as glamorous as it sounds," Dracula groaned, "There were days I wished I was dead, and stayed dead because it was sooo damn boring, and the worst part of that was I couldn't leave for the entirety of my term under any circumstances." He gave a smug smile as he said, "But I did make one exception to play hooky when Mavy and her trouble prone friends disobeyed the one rule about never going out on Halloween." He then gave a bored tone again. "But the truth is I didn't even want the job, my place was at the hotel with my precious Mavy. But there was no way out of it, and it was 'tradition'…" He did a quote gesture. "…for a Dracula to be the Grand Vamp for a term, so I only did it reluctantly."

"What happened that you had to leave, and why couldn't Mavis and her friends go out on Halloween?" Elona asked with almost a laugh, "I'm sure it would've been fine if they went to a party in town or something."

"Oh, no, no, no," Dracula argued, "Trust me, bad things happen when a curious monster goes out on Halloween, I should know because it happened to me...twice."

"Why, what happened?" Elona asked with some doubt and curiosity.

"Pumpkin Guts, uugh," Dracula quivered at the memories.

"Pumpkin Guts?" Elona and Johnny asked simultaneously, confused and curious.

"It's a story for another time, but trust me it was scary, and not in a good way. Besides, we're getting off topic. The short story is I hated being at Vampire Council, even though being the Grand Vamp had it perks, but it was a job I was forced to do. There were even some old fogeys still on the Council that questioned my qualification of being Grand Vamp, but I didn't care. At least I stuck it to them."

"If it was tradition for a Dracula to serve for a time, why would these old members question your qualification?" Elona asked.

"Was it because you got in trouble that one time, something about involving humans or something before you met Mom?" Mavis said.

"I told you never to bring that up, especially after I told you about it," Dracula snarled low with some embarrassment.

Mavis just smiled smugly.

"What happened that you got in trouble with the Council?" Elona asked, then teased, "Were you a really baaad boy?"

She wiggled her eyebrows at him as he broke out in a light sweat and stammered, "Uh, well, eh, uh, that's one way to put it."

His face dropped a bit to a frown, making the others go quiet and lose any teasing smiles.

"It's…a very long story," he said low with sadness, "And it was a time when I was…less than discreet in my passions, especially with uh, the fairer sex and affairs of the heart."

"Dad, you don't have to sure coat it," Mavis said, "And it's okay if you were a hormonal young guy, like I was a hormonal young girl. You know how I had a huge crush on Jett Black."

"Who's Jett Black?" Johnny asked, suddenly feeling a growing sense of jealousy.

Mavis suddenly blushed a bit as she smile awkwardly and stammered, "Oh, uh, he was uh, just some cute guy I liked, y'know, a famous Vampire musician, sorta like a teen rock god."

"A teen rock god!?" Johnny nearly yelled loudly in a growing jealousy, but Mavis tried to shush him.

"Will you relax, it was just a crush and I got over it," she tried to reason with him, "Besides, he wasn't all that great anyway as he was rude and mean to me, and that's in the past You're my Zing, Johnny, which is totally different and way better, and that's all that matters. You're the only one for me."

Johnny looked uncertain for a long moment as he scowled a bit, but his face softened to an easy going smile again as he and Mavis kissed and embraced.

Dracula couldn't help but feel his fatherly protectiveness, happy for them, squeamish, but also a little ashamed but also relieved they didn't have to talk about his dark checkered past anymore.

"When I was thirteen," Elona said, "I had a huge crush on this one cute boy named Craig Davidson, and I thought he was the dreamiest boy in the world. Sandy blond hair, dreamy robin's egg blue eyes, and so tall for his age he was on the school basketball team. But he only had eyes for a girl named Tammy who blossom big and early, if you know what I mean, and she was so shallow and loved the attention so much I called her Trampy Tammy. But like all school yard crushes it past."

"I used to have a crush on this one hot girl in high school named Joanne Jones, so she was called Jojo for short. She may not have had the hottest name, but being captain of the cheerleading squad the things she could do with pom poms, let me tell ya," Johnny said as he got a goofy faraway dreamy look in his eyes, now making Mavis give him a jealous look.

But Johnny quickly snapped out it as he stammered out, "So, uh, were there any hot Vampire chicks you had a crush on, Drac?"

Dracula was taken aback at this, just freezing in his seat and looking around at everybody as they waited for him to answer.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said with finality.

"Ah, c'mon, Drac," Johnny groaned, "You must have some stories about girls you liked. I know you had to have been a real chick magnet when you were our age."

"I said I don't want to talk about it, Johnny," Dracula nearly growled.

"Why, Drac?" Elona asked, "Does it have to do with what happened with those girls in the book?"

"What book?" Mavis asked.

"The one about me," Dracula mumbled a bit.

"Oh, the one by Bram Stoker," Johnny said with a smile, "I had to read it in school, it was so spooky, and so awesome, there's even this part where…"

Dracula gave Johnny and icy cold stone face scowl, making the moppy red head go silent.

"Dad, why don't you want to talk about it?" Mavis asked, "What is it you won't tell us?"

"Uh," Dracula stammered a bit with awkwardness, "Elona and I have been reading the book together for a few days now, and uh, I uh, don't want to y'know, ruin anything we haven't gotten to yet, so spoilers, y'know."

Elona gently put a hand on his shoulder as she said with a smile, "Drac, I doubt you'll spoil the rest of the story for me right now, and I already know you told me about those girls from the book. What else happened with them?"

Dracula momentarily tightened his lips as he looked at the other three as they watched him in expectation.

Finally, he caved as she slowly said, "It's too depressing, and I don't want to ruin what a good time we're having now. And I don't want you to be disappointed in me, Elona, because of what you went through."

Her eyes just radiated sympathy for him as she gently caressed his sharp cheek and lightly kissed it. Smiling at this reassurance which warmed his heart, he decided to try and keep this story of his past short as he began to say,

"Those human girls, Mina and Lucy, were the reason I was in trouble with the Vampire Council in my younger days. Being so full of myself and thinking I could have whatever I wanted I went after them instead of courting the three Vampire girls my dad arranged me with, but I hadn't Zinged with any of them and even he encouraged me to find my Zing someday. But not with any of those shrews.

"I had growing feelings for Mina, and I thought she was my Zing, even though she was engaged to another human, but I wouldn't let that stop me. To keep it short, things didn't go so well and Mina married the Harker guy so I thought maybe Lucy would be the one. It was nice and we had some fun and laughs for a while, but…"

He was silent for a long minute, but he gathered his courage and continued, "Let's just say because of my arrogance and over eagerness for a lady in my life, in the end it costs hers, and I never wanted that. I still feel guilty about it to this day, but I've tried to find ways to make up for it.

"While wallowing in my guilt I went to Mina and confessed everything; who I really was, what I had done, my real reasons for being in London, and my feelings for her. Not surprisingly she wasn't happy about a lot of it, but something happened between us that night."

He momentarily got a far off dreamy look as he remembered that fleeting encounter that fatal night, but got snapped out of it as Mavis asked,

"What happened, Dad? Give us the juicy details."

"Mavis," Dracula gasped, "You're too young to know."

"I'm 126, married and have my own kid," she complained, "I think I can handle some stuff from your dirty past, Dad."

"We kissed, the end," Dracula said with a snark.

Everyone just gave him frowns, so he just groaned as he said, "Fine, we got all hot and steamy in bed, and I let her uh, _taste_ me so we could be together…"

"Dad, Ew!" Mavis cringed at the very thought.

Dracula chuckled for a moment, but his face dropped again in sadness as he said, "But it wasn't meant to be as we were caught. I fled back to Transylvania, more crazy bat shit happened, my dad and the Council found out and faked my death in front of those idiotic bigoted humans so I could escape.

"Dad and the Council accused me of fraternizing with humans and setting Monsters back centuries, which they were right. I didn't want to face whatever punishment they planned for me so I ran away to hide until I wound up in a castle where I first met Frankie, but that's a story for another time."

Everyone was silent for a little while, looking at Dracula in sadness and pity. Dracula looked at Elona deep in the eyes, and while he saw she must understand how he felt and what he went through, he could also tell she knew there was more to the story.

Through a bond of a telepathic link known only between them, he told her he will tell her more later.

"Wow, Dad," Mavis breathed low, "I can see why you didn't want to talk about it. That all must've been painful for you, especially what happened to that girl."

"It was," he said low, his eyes glassed over with small tears.

"Hey, I'm sorry, Drac," Johnny said, "I of all people should know better that the book was way off about you, and I know the real you, and that's not you, not anymore."

"Thank you, Johnny."

Johnny then looked around the game room and he spotted a familiar vibrantly colored game console, which gave him an idea to make his lips curl into a big goofy smile again.

"Hey, I know what'll cheer everyone up," he said excitedly, "That's a Dance, Dance Revolution game over there, so let's go try it, guys, come on. It'll be fun, and a great to burn off some calories."

Dracula was reluctant at first, but they all coerced him to join up and they went to play the game.

The two Vampires were at first confused but curious to know how the game worked, so Johnny got onto the floor console and showed them as he danced to Gangum Style by Psy, his feet hitting the arrows of the four directions as they appeared and went up at a fast pace on the screen and played a viral dancer to match him.

Somehow he looked silly with his baggy clothes flopping about and an expert at the game at once as he easily hit the arrows with a fluid skill, and just having the time of his life. As the song ended, he was really out of breath but took a bow as Mavis and Elona clapped for him.

Mavis got excited as she got upon the console herself to take her turn, dancing to the song Dragostea din tei by Ozone, what was better known as the Numa, Numa song. She took to it like a pro, her dance moves far more graceful and fluid than Johnny, but it just made him more proud of her.

Elona needed some encouragement to try out the dance game, but she admitted she hadn't done it in a long time since she was a teenager. So she and Mavis had a 'dance off' to the song called Sandstorm by Darude, which was mostly an electro pop tune from the late 1990s. At first she felt hesitant, but there was no stopping once the music started, and although the game was at beginner's level she at first struggled with keeping up with the moving arrows, but not a minute in her natural dancing talent and skills kicked in and she kept up with Mavis easily enough to make Dracula's heart sour and give a big smile of his own, but also something more.

Something about the way her body moved with such tantalizing grace and sultry made his body warm up from the inside, and it made him fidget as he crossed his legs together to keep a bump from showing in his pants and he needed to loosen his collar a bit as steam seemed to wisp from him and he broke out in a light sweat again.

Finally, it was his turn to give the game a try, and he quickly wiped away the sweat upon his brow he just held up his hands to say,

"Oh, no, no, no, I couldn't, it's all so flashy and stompy."

Elona gave him a look that truly surprised him as her eyes went big and adorable, and she pouted her lips as she begged with a cute tone, "Aw, c'mon, Dracy, pweeease?"

He just froze in shock, at her attempt of the pouty-bat face, and it was heart wrenching and adorable all at once.

But then she gave a sly look as she teased him, "Unless, you're too chicken and we'd beat you."

He just scoffed as he tried to hide his insulted male pride and just ordered, "Stand back, I'll show you how to really dance."

There was no hesitation as he stepped up onto the dance console and picked a rather popular song to dance to, Stamp on the Ground by Italo Brothers.

As the music began, lights flashed and blinked to the beginning rhythm of the song, Dracula easily moved with it as though made of air. As the arrows steadily moved up on the screen and the rhythmic beat built up, Dracula simply began with proudly crossing he arms across his chest and pressing the arrows with his sharp shoes lightly without even looking at them; and as the song finally began its upbeat pop rhythm and the lyrics began, Dracula's cape came to life to dance with him and near perfectly matched his movements.

Stamp on the Ground by the Italo Brothers:

 _Stamp on the ground/_

 _Jump, jump, jump, jump/_

 _Move it all around/_

 _Tep tep ta dow/_

 _Stamp on the ground/_

 _Jump, jump, jump, jump/_

 _Move it all around/_

 _We're jumpin' all around/_

 _DROP THE BEAT!_

Dracula's cape reattached back to him as he spun like an onyx colored whirlwind, his ethereal and animated moves attracted the attention of a small growing crowd of the other patrons of the funcade, many instinctively getting out their phones to record the vivacious Vampire as he continued to dance upon the platform.

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup_

 _Jumpin' all around/_

 _Drop the beat!/_

With his preternatural swiftness Dracula was able to easily dance on both sides of the platform made for two, not including his 'living' cape.

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup_

 _We're sending out and invitation/_

 _To everyone in every nation/_

 _But don't sleep, get on the run/_

 _Stop thinkin' and just have some fun/_

 _(2x)Stamp on the ground/_

 _Jump, jump, jump, jump/_

 _Movin' all around/_

 _Tep te te dow/_

 _Stamp on the ground/_

 _Jump, jump, jump, jump/_

 _Movin' all around/_

 _Jumin' all around!/_

Dracula's dance moves included spins, a hand stand on one arm, even a couple of back flips before another dizzying whirling spin, and all without literally missing a beat, making the crowd cheer and whoop with excitement.

With a gesture of his arm and vigorously smiling, he made Elona fly up onto the platform to be with him, making her give a small yelp at the sudden movement of invisible power, but she just smiled as she found herself dancing in sync with Dracula.

Most of the women in the crowd cheered and gave loud 'Whooo!'

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup, dup_

 _Drop the beat!_

 _So come and join our love foundation/_

 _Go feel the heat, the sweet vibration/_

 _'Cause we care about to ignite/_

 _And we wanna to go out tonight!/_

Dracula actually lip synced to this last verse.

The music got a little bit quieter with a light popping rhythm as though far off background noise to Dracula and Elona as they levitated in a small circle, staring deeply into each others' eyes, a growing fire between them.

Then the more energetic drumming pop beat resumed, instinctually knowing each others' dance steps as though of one mind, but certainly of one heartbeat and soul.

In a spontaneous moment, Dracula took Elona in a brief dip and kissed her, making her blush and give a smile to then resume their dancing.

 _(3x)Dup, dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup,_

 _Dup, dup, dup, dup, dup,_

 _Jumpin' all around/_

 _Drop the beat!_

 _(Upbeat pop music)_

 _(Final)Jumpin' all around!_

The crowd cheered and yelled in excitement as the music finally ended, Dracula and Elona giving bows as they held hands and not even paying attention to the record high score they now had on the game.

Johnny and Mavis cheered the loudest for them, hugging Dracula and Elona as Mavis said,

"That was amazing, you guys, I'm so pumped now!"

"Totally awesome moves, Drac, you must've beat the highest score on the game."

"Thanks, guys," Dracula panted heavily as he smiled, "That was the funnest I've had since Mavy's 118th birthday."

"Yeah," Elona said between her own heavy breathes, "I wouldn't mind going for another round, but I'm getting tired."

"How about one go of karaoke before we leave?" Mavis suggested, "Just a song or two, just to say we tried it here."

"Okay," Elona said, "it'll give us a chance to rest a little bit before we have to leave."

Mavis and Johnny went first, singing as a duet Can You Feel the Love Tonight from the classic Disney movie The Lion King.

Elona went next, picking out an appropriate song she had thought about doing at the next Karaoke Night at the hotel as a kind of surprise for Dracula, but some how seemed right to do it now. It was Love Song for a Vampire by Annie Lennox:

 _Come into these arms again/_

 _And lay your body down/_

 _The rhythm of this trembling heart/_

 _Is beating like a drum/_

 _It beats for you, it bleeds for you/_

 _It knows not how it sounds/_

 _For it is the drums of drums/_

 _It is the song of songs/_

 _Once I had the rarest rose/_

 _That ever deigned to bloom/_

 _Cruel winter chilled the bud/_

 _And stole my flower too soon/_

 _Oh, loneliness, Oh, hopelessness/_

 _To search the end of time/_

 _For there is in all the world/_

 _No greater love than mine/_

 _(5X) Love, O Love_

 _still falls the rain/_

 _(5X) Love, O Love_

 _still falls the night/_

 _(5X) Love, O Love_

 _be mine forever (be mine forever)/_

 _(11X) Love, O Love_

 _Let me be the only one/_

 _To keep you from the cold/_

 _Now the floor of heav'n is laid/_

 _With stars of brightest gold/_

 _They shine for you, they shine for you/_

 _They burn for all to see/_

 _Come into these arms again/_

 _And set this spirit free._

As the song ended, Dracula couldn't help but give a smile as his eyes glassed over with tears and he held his hands over his heart, so deeply touched by this song Elona sang just for him. Even Johnny and Mavis were touched by the song as they smiled and touched cheek to cheek.

She came down from the stage as Dracula hugged and kissed her with gratitude and passion as she asked him with a smile, "Are you going to try it, Drac?"

"I'd like to," he said, "But maybe another time, as I'm getting worn out already."

"And it's getting late," Johnny observed as he looked at his phone, "The place closes at 1am, so we should get some prizes and head home."

Some of the prizes they picked out were some stuffed animals like a smiling black bat for Mavis, a white tiger for Elona from Dracula, a Kakie the Cake Monster plushie for Dennis, a replica vintage Slipknot band poster for Johnny, and finally Elona got Dracula a smiling plushie of him as a gag gift, which he frowned at Elona about. She just laughed, which was still like music to his ears and also got him an adorable statue of an iconic couple dancing together, the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast.

As Elona, Johnny and Mavis headed for the door, Dracula said he'd meet them at the car but he needed to do something first.

The last prize he asked for was another surprise just for Elona and him, but something special for a later time when she was ready.

For a long moment his thoughts lingered on how things were changing, and yet how some things were so like from times in his past. Some times he was proud of and wouldn't trade a thousand years for; other times he had often wished he could go back in time and change.

He put those thoughts aside as he suddenly gave a big yawn, making him realize how tired he was getting.

"I need a nap," he mumbled to himself as he glided out the door and got into the back of the hearse with Elona.

Things were mostly quiet as Johnny drove the four of them back to the hotel, Dracula mostly dozed quietly as Elona silently watched him.

She couldn't help but subconsciously smile as she saw how sweet and beautiful he seemed, even adorably tired as he dozed in and out of exhaustion.

So much had changed in her life within the last year, even the last several months and the best changes were because of him.

Once she never thought she'd have a place to belong again, find people who would accept her and care about her; certain she would be forever alone as a social outcast, a shell of her former self.

But all that changed the day she found Hotel Transylvania, and it was because of him, a man who showed her it was okay to feel pain, but even more important to let it go and love again.

And yet she had questioned why she loved him, or if she even should love him that way as the pain of her last romance lingered with her to this day. Yet, somehow it seemed so far away and nearly forgotten by now.

As she continued to watch him on the way home, she thought about everything about him that meant so much to her. How he was so kind and listened to her when she needed to talk, even being so supportive when she needed him and was there for her as a friend when she was lonely, or just needed to talk or have a shoulder to cry on, even despite their intense arguments; a true gentleman that treated her like a person as well as a lady, allowing or even encouraging her to find self worth and a life of her own; how funny he was and just made her laugh just with a snark or his ever endearing sarcasm; the adorable way he acted with his family, doting on his daughter or his grandson; the many friends he shared and showed that same kindness to and how it went to all monsters across the world. Yet most surprising of all, how she felt a kindred spirit in him in their shared loneliness; him losing his wife to prejudice and violence, as well as being estranged from a cold and arrogant father and her being alienated from her own family due to a doomed relationship with an abusive man and a religious victim complex.

While much of their relationship and friendship was built upon this, it had grown into so much more and she could see how they have bettered each other because of it; him helping her to come out of her shell and make friends again, and her helping him to let go of some of the past and move forward with his own heart. Those things alone were worth more than the arguing and fighting they enduring, proving how stronger they were together.

He didn't define everything about her, but he does mean everything to her and she knew she meant everything to him.

How she wanted to show him that in some spiritual way, not just physical.

Perhaps a special gift just for him; something to show how well she knew him and how much she loved him.

Just wanting to be with him, and feeling how tired she was getting she came closer to the dozing Dracula and snuggled up beside him as she laid her head upon his chest and hugged to him close.

Feeling a warm presence upon his figure, Dracula momentarily opened his eyes to see Elona snuggling upon him, making him give a small smile as he gently embraced her to bring her closer to him and rest his head upon hers.

Seeing this from the rearview mirror, Johnny and Mavis couldn't help but smile at how adorable and peaceful they looked together.


	26. Deepening Bonds

Deepening Bonds

A couple of weeks later, it was nearing Halloween and the hotel was filling with its largest gathering of humans than any other time of the year.

But a week before the anticipated holiday, Dracula arranged for a small barbeque just for friends and family to celebrate his birthday.

Out by the pool area, thirteen Tiki torches were set up around the area, while dozens of colorful lanterns upon string were hung and ribbons decorated the area to bring a celebratory ambiance, while the Drac Pack, their ladies, and Dracula's family, including Vlad had gathered together for the special barbeque, everyone having brought something to eat as it was also a pot luck.

Vlad brought his favorite for the pot luck, rat dogs and buns, and set them on a long table with a bunch of other picnic foods and saw his son by the steaming and sizzling barbeque where the delicious aroma of cooking meats could be smelled as smoke wisped and billowed about, while Dracula wore a chef's hat and an apron that said 'Bite the Cook.'

Vlad momentarily watched as his son flipped a large piece of meat as a living monster roast walked across the grill and left its 'bottom' to cook as Dracula flipped another piece of weird looking but delicious smelling meat.

"Hey, Drac," Vlad greeted with a big fatherly smile as he walked up to his son with open arms for a hug, "Happy Birthday, son!"

"Hey, Dad," Dracula greeted his father as he hugged him back, "thanks, it's great you made it. I'm just waiting on Elona to get here."

Vlad looked around and saw all of Dracula's closest friends talking and enjoying themselves; Frank and Murray chatting while drinking eyeball margaritas; a few werepups climbed all over and chewed on poor Wayne's ears as he tried to talk with Griffin, while the girls hung out; and Vlad saw Mavis getting some food while Johnny played catch with a football with a hovering Dennis and the rest of the wild werepups.

The blue skinned elder Vampire's face dropped a bit with disappointment as though not seeing anyone he was hoping to see.

"Didn't you invite Lydia?" he asked Dracula.

"No," Dracula said with a dismissive shrug.

"Why?" Vlad asked dryly as he frowned a bit, "It's your birthday, another time for family to come together, whether or not you're related to them."

Dracula just sighed as he said, "I thought about it, but I don't think Lydia would be okay with all this, Dad. She's still all about tradition and the old school days."

"So was I, and I still am about some things. But there are a lot of things that are more important than tradition, such as family. Still, I hope you don't ignore her forever, and she needs to know. Sooner or later, you'll have to make up with her and show her how much has changed; otherwise someone will have to do it for you. Remember how it took Mavis inviting me to Denisovich's party just to see you again?"

Dracula just rolled his eyes as he complained, "Yes, Dad, whatever, stop lecturing me about it. I don't need this today, it's my birthday. I'll talk to Lydia, maybe in another century or two."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Vlad mumbled and just helped himself to some Blood Beater punch, "What about Gene?"

"Taking one of his ten year long naps," Dracula said dryly, "Years of playing retro games, and I swear he can be so oblivious to things he can sleep through a hurricane."

Vlad just shrugged as that's just how his brother was.

Dracula finished preparing some snarling hamburgers, and gave some to his friends as Frank asked, "Don't you want someone else to do that for you, Drac? It's your birthday, you don't need to do any cooking."

"I don't mind, Frank," Dracula said with a smile, "It's one of the rare times I can do something for my family and friends in a more hands on approach kind of way. Has anyone seen Elona? Her monster burger is ready."

Most everyone just shrugged or said no, not really knowing where Elona was.

"I'm sure she's around somewhere," Mavis said, "She said she'd be here and was looking forward to the barbeque, so let's just give her a few more minutes, Dad."

"Okay, sure," Dracula said with a bit of a broken voice, trying to hide a growing worry, "She should be here in a few minutes."

He gave her at least ten minutes, but worry about where she was at the moment just grew within him to make his stomach churn with anxiety and nearly make him choke. Trying to stay calm, he dialed her cell number to see where she may be and what was keeping her. Instead for some reason it went straight to voice mail and he his heart just dropped to his stomach.

"Where is she?" he asked in a near panic, "She couldn't have left me. Oh, no, what if I drove her away? What if I've done something that made her leave the hotel forever? Where did she go, how will I find her and tell her I'm sorry?!"

"Dad, calm down," Mavis tried to reason with him, "I'm sure she's fine and didn't leave like that, just give her a little more time to get home."

"What if she's hurt, Mavis?" he countered, "If she's hurt and I'm not there for her, she'll think I'm the worst guy in the world now!"

Before Mavis could say anything more to calm him, Dracula flew like a shadowed bat out of hell back into the hotel itself, leaving behind a momentarily floating cook's hat and greased apron, to just frantically search every inch of his prestigious castle, even the underground tunnels to Glenn's grotto where certain unwanted visitors had to hide behind large rocks and keep from being spotted by the son of their powerful master.

A disgruntled Quasimodo eyed his panic stricken boss, but put on an air of pseudo-concern as he asked, "What seems to be ze problem, _Monsieur_ Dracula?"

Dracula just eyed the traitorous scheming hunchback, his blue eyes becoming a fiery blood red as dark indigo mist enveloped his figure as he gave a low chilling growl as he warned Quasimodo in a deep otherworldly echoing voice,

"Elona is gone. If you've done anything to her…"

Quasimodo felt an icy chill go down his spine as he gave a faint gulp, actually becoming fearful of his boss, but he just tried to keep a cool head as he stammered,

"Heh, heh, no, no, _Monsieur_ , I've been down here ze whole time…I-I haven't seen ze _Mademoiselle_ in months…I'm sure she must be perfectly fine."

Dracula calmed down a bit, but still glared darkly at his former head chef who just gave a crooked awkward smile.

"She'd better be," Dracula warned in a cold hard tone, "because if you ever did anything to her, Quasimodo, I will have your blood, which is why you're down here for the next millennium."

He was gone in a whoosh, and Quasimodo just glared hatefully in the direction Dracula disappeared to as he said quietly,

"Not if I have anything to say about it, you fool."

Dracula resume his search for his beloved Elona, even searching in guestrooms currently occupied, much to the chagrin of his guests. One was even a repeated case of walking in accidently on a showering female skeleton, making her shriek from the intrusion to attract the attention of her irate and frustrated skeleton husband to make him yell,

"What's wrong with you, man!? Don't you ever learn?!"

Dracula was quickly out of their room as he mumbled frustrated to himself, "Some things never change."

In the lobby, he became nearly discouraged, even crestfallen as he slouched over and plopped into one of the many crimson plush chairs as he muttered sadly to himself,

"What have I done? What did I do to drive her away? This is all my fault, I should've been more aware of what was going on with us. How will I ever…?"

He held his face for a moment as he seemed about to weep, but something caught his eye as he saw a familiar figure walk through the revolving door; it was his beloved and precious Elona.

"HOLY RABIES!" he yelled with a joyous relief, flying right at her like a speeding black shadowed racecar to not even give her a half second to react.

Elona only gave a small yelp as she saw a dark silhouette fly right at her and suddenly found herself in a familiar embrace so tight she could barely breath as her face was smushed like a guppy fish face, while her vision was suddenly clouded over with a dizzying speed as she tried to hold onto the carrier in her hand.

They became entrapped in the revolving door for some seconds as Dracula squeezed tightly to Elona's slender but curvaceous figure, as though fearful to let go like she would disappear into thin air, spinning so fast it was like a crazy rapid whirlwind to then be thrown out the next half second to make Dracula continue to spin on the tips of his sharp dress shoes for many more rotations all while he yelled happily,

"You're home, you're back! You didn't leave!"

They gradually slowed down to stop as Dracula still hugged her tightly to his figure, his cape cocooning them like a gentle silken dark blanket.

"Oh," Elona moaned softly as she began to say with a crooked smile, "Hey, Drac, I'm sorry I…"

"Where have you been!?" he suddenly yelled at her as he released her from his previously warm embrace, now completely cross with her in his unpredictable mood swings, "I've been worried sick about you! What if something happened to you and I wasn't there? Why didn't you call me? I called you, but you didn't answer and I became certain something happened to you, and all on my birthday!"

He gave some heavy breathes from the angered rush as his sudden emotional change from overly doting and worried boyfriend to suddenly angered and upset with Elona had her momentarily on edge with some guilt, but she just got cross herself as she yelled back,

"I'm fine, and I don't need this crap from you right now! I'm sorry, I did try to call earlier but my phone died!"

She showed him her dead phone, and his face softened from its crossed glare to one of slight guilt as he said more calmly,

"I'm sorry, Elona, my precious sweetbone…" He hugged her close again. "You know I just get so worried about you, even though you can take care of yourself." He got more serious again. "But if you're going to be going out, you need to let me know, and next time make sure your phone is fully charged."

"Yes, Dad," Elona mocked as she rolled her eyes.

"Where have you been anyway?" he asked a little hard, "Everybody is outside having burgers and stuff, and yours is getting cold. I made a special one just for you."

"I was in town getting your present," she answered, and set to explain more but he just hugged her close again as he said,

"Oh, it doesn't matter, I'm just so glad you're back and you're here on my birthday."

He began to lean down for a passionate kiss, and Elona would have returned it but instead his lips landed on something furry as he heard a cute light trilling as a head popped up between them.

His eyes snapped open as he suddenly spat out fur from his mouth as he stuttered, "Pttf, ptt, what the…oh..."

He gave a light gasp as Elona was holding a tiny raccoon kit with wide blue eyes, and a bright fushcia bow around its neck in her arms and smiling a bit sheepishly as she saw Dracula's eyes brighten and go adorably wide.

"This is your birthday present," she said happily, "I'm sorry I took so long to get back, but I was in town to pick her up from the zoo and she needed her shots and a check up and stuff. Johnny has a friend who works at the zoo in town and they helped me pick her out. You can name her Lulu if you want to."

Dracula was just speechless as the tiny creature crawled up his arm to snuggle against his neck, making his eyes nearly glass over with growing tears.

"Aww, I think she likes you," Elona cooed.

"Oh, Elona," he said softly as he choked up and held back his happy tears, "Thank you, she's adorable. I don't think I can say how much this means to me."

No more words were needed as they just took hands while smiling lovingly to each other, and walked back out to the pool area to enjoy the rest of Dracula's birthday barbeque.

They soon made it back outside and everyone gave cheerful greetings and happy to see Elona was okay, despite Dracula going all worrywart on them.

They all then noticed the tiny raccoon kit in Dracula's arm and just gave adoring coos to the little creature.

"Everybody, meet little Lulu," he announced proudly, his voice just gushing with happy nostalgia.

"Aww, it's so cute," Mavis cooed as she gently petted her father's new pet.

"Yeah," Dennis said happily, "I hope I can get a pet someday."

"Maybe when you're older, sweetbat," Mavis said.

But Dennis didn't really listen to his mother as Lulu scampered up to him and just started running around him as he turned into a little bat, laughing with the little kit and just playing, making everyone laugh or gust with awws.

Everyone wanted a closer look at her, and the new tiny Lulu seemed to bask in all the new attention. However, unsurprisingly the only one who didn't seem very happy with the raccoon kit was Vlad as he just gave a stone faced look to the whole scene and mumbled to himself,

"Oh, holy crap-tastic rabies, not this nonsense again."

"What was that, Dad?" Dracula asked harshly.

"Oh, nothing," Vlad said dryly, "Just thought you'd out grown the need for a cute fuzzy pet."

Dracula just gave Vlad a blank stone cold look as he returned with a snark, "Oh, and Lydia wasn't after you let her keep that silly enchanted talking chicken of hers, when she actually wanted that raven."

"That was different," Vlad groaned a bit defensively, "Ravens are way too mischievous and take too much time to clean up after leaving their shit everywhere. Besides that chicken was sweet on Lydia, and I offered to get a new and even better pet, like a giant tarantula or a king cobra, maybe even a giant salt water crocodile, as they have a real bite to them, heh, heh, heh. Maybe I could give that fuzzball the bite it should have, make everybody crap their pants, heh, heh, heh."

While Elona had come to really like Vlad as he reminded her a lot of her late grandpa, she couldn't help but feel defensive for Dracula as she said with as much respect as possible,

"Excuse me, Vlad, sir, but there's nothing wrong with wanting a cute fuzzy pet, I had a cat growing up, and I did spend a lot of time and money for Drac's birthday present. But if you're saying what I think you're saying, I may as well return the poor thing and save everyone a giant headache."

Vlad gave her a bit of raised brow as he heard the anxiety mixed with bravery, and a bit of insult in her voice.

"I was only trying to do something nice for Drac, and I don't think we really want to go through the reverse-Exorcist tonight," she said with disappointment.

Vlad's face soften a bit into a smile as respect and admiration for Elona grew a bit more.

"Yeah, you're right, Elona," Vlad sighed a bit, "While I was never fond of the raccoon Drac had as a kid, I was only kidding. Mostly."

"Good," Dracula mumbled as he breathed out a building tension, "Once was enough for me."

An awkward silence fell over the small crowd as the rest of the Drac Pack, the girls, and the rest of Dracula's family watched what happened, nobody really sure of what to expect or if someone should jump in.

"Hey, uh, how about some cake now, Drac?" Frank asked, "I think we all need some cake now."

Dracula smiled as he concurred, "That's a great idea, Frankie. Bring out the cake!"

Two gargoyle cooks soon flew out to pool area carrying a big chocolate and red frosted cake with Happy Birthday, Dracula! written on it in fancy calligraphy, somehow the frosting formed a frightening demonic face with fiery red eyes, curved horns, and deadly sharp fangs in his 'mouth' and giving off a deep evil laugh, saying in a really deep menacing voice as it was placed upon the large buffet table,

"Eat me, I'm delicious."

"We sure will," Frank mumbled as he licked his lips and his mouth drooled at the wonderful looking confection, but Eunice slapped the back of his head as she glared at him and lectured quietly,

"Not until after we sing."

As the gargoyle cooks lit the candles circling the cake in under a few seconds, all of Dracula's friends and family began to sing happily,

 _"Happy birthday to you,_

 _Happy birthday to you,_

 _Happy birthday, Dear Drac,_

 _Happy Birthday to you!"_

The Birthday Vamp smiled in thanks to everyone, but especially to Elona whose voice he heard the most clearly as though the clear call of a siren in a cacophony of chaotic blaring noise. Taking as deep a breath as he could, Dracula blew out most of the candles, but missed a few the furthest from him but cleverly used his cape, making it appear as though made of silken darkness with a wave of a soft rustle, to make a small gust of wind to put them out, making everyone clap for him.

Dracula then did the honor of cutting the cake and passing a piece to everyone, giving the first piece to Elona, making her smile at him as she was amused and flattered with him playing favorites with her.

A short while later after cake, coffee, and chatting between family and friends, it was time for Dracula to open his presents.

Vlad offered his gift first as he claimed, "I'm the Birthday Boy's father, so he has to open mine first as it's tradition."

"No, it's not," Dracula complained with a mumble.

It was simply a long stick looking thing wrapped in aluminum foil, but Dracula gave a smile as he saw Vlad had made him a shish kabob with some of his favorite foods such as scorpions, mice, some small birds, and interspersed with what looked like rotten vegetables.

"Thanks, Dad," Dracula said, "It has most of my favorites, but why didn't you give it to me earlier? I could have eaten it before the cake."

Vlad just shrugged as he said, "I wasn't really sure what you kids like these days, so I just thought of what you liked when you were a kid."

"Well, I'll just save this for later."

Dracula set the wrapped up shish kabob aside as Vlad gave a rather cheeky smile as he momentarily wrapped himself in his cape with a soft rustle as he said, "Well, that and I found this and I remembered how much you loved this little guy."

From out of thin air behind his black cape he made a rather old and wore looking plushie appear; a dark grey zombie bat with button eyes and a cute yet somehow disturbing macabre smile. There was some small evidence of it having been sown several times over many years, and it was covered in dust and cobwebs.

Dracula's eyes actually lit up at the sight of the old toy as he gushed with childlike excitement, "Mr. Flappy!"

He grabbed the toy from Vlad and squeezed it tightly to himself for an adorable second before realizing everyone else was snickering behind his back.

"Ooooh, look at Dracy Wacky hugging his little batty watty," Griffin mocked with a cute tone, chuckling from his nose.

Dracula's face suddenly dropped with embarrassment as he gave his snickering friends a scowl, and it only deepened to make his sharp features to nearly seeming razor edged as his embarrassment just deepened as he saw Elona trying to hold back a smile.

"Dad," he groaned, "I'm not 35 anymore, I'm too old for toys."

"Fine," Vlad shrugged, "If you don't want that worn old thing I'll just give to one of Wayne's kids."

With a wave of his hand, Dracula made the old stuffed zombie bat disappear in a puff of indigo mist as he gave his father a hard blank look, but Vlad just smiled cheekily.

The next present Dracula took was from Griffin, and either Dracula didn't notice or ignored the mischievous expression of Griffin's glasses as he watched his friend open the box.

Dracula opened the gift with tempered expectation, but his eyes went wide and he seemed to blush a cherry red. He glared at Griffin as though he was going to burn a hole right through the already fully transparent man, but Griffin just seemed to shrug as he said,

"What? It's just a gag, though who knows if you'll need them, and you will need them."

Dracula just tried to hide the present away even as everyone asked what it was, even making sure to keep it out of Elona's sight as she tried to get of glimpse of what it was.

The rest of the birthday presents were much tamer and more appropriate and things finally went more smoothly.

Wanda had made Dracula a box of chocolate spider and roach cupcakes; Wayne got him a brand new fishing pole in hopes of going fishing for piranha someday soon; Murray go him the newest album from Dracula's old band Coffin Kings; and finally a gift basket full of his favorite cologne, personal shampoo and conditioner, and even some more of his favorite sweets, and topped with a card made by Dennis with a happy face with fangs.

He thanked everyone for his nice and simple birthday presents, but the party wasn't over yet. With a gesture he made a spare karaoke player come on and the song My Immortal by Evanascence began to play.

With a gentlemanly bow, he held out his hand to Elona for her to take, and while hesitant at first she couldn't help but smile as he lead her out to a small open area for a slow dance and held her close, which everyone else joined in gradually.

My Immortal by Evanascence:

 _I'm so tired of being here/_

 _Suppress by all my childish fears/_

 _And if you have to leave/_

 _I wish that you'd just leave/_

 _'Cause your presence still lingers here/_

 _And it won't leave me alone/_

 _Chorus:_

 _These wounds won't seem to heal/_

 _This pain is just too real/_

 _There's just too much that time cannot erase/_

 _When you cried, I wiped away all of your tears/_

 _When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears/_

 _And I held your hand all of these years/_

 _But you still have all of me._

 _You used to captivate me by your resonating light/_

 _Now I'm bound by the life you left behind/_

 _Your face, it haunts my once pleasant dreams/_

 _Your voice, it chase away all of the sanity in me/_

 _Chorus:_

 _These wounds won't seem to heal/_

 _This pain is just too real/_

 _There's just too much that time cannot erase/_

 _When you cried, I'd wiped away all of your tears/_

 _When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears/_

 _And I held your hand through all of these years/_

 _But you still have all of me._

 _I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone/_

 _But though you're still with me, I've been alone all along/_

 _Chorus:_

 _When you'd cry, I've wipe away all of your tears/_

 _When you'd scream, I've fight away all of your fears/_

 _And I held your hand through all of these years/_

 _But you still have all of me._

The music gradually faded on a soft melody, but Dracula had been so lost in the song as a small surge of emotions swirled within him as he remembered the pain of losing his beloved Martha, but somehow he wasn't alone anymore and that pain was so far away now as he felt Elona rest her head upon his chest and just gave a small smile.

The rest of the birthday party everyone spent chatting, eating left over delicious party foods, or even dancing to burn off some calories.

A short time later Elona, Mavis, Dennis, and Johnny took a rest from dancing as Vlad sat beside Elona and made an old leather book appear, which turned out to be an old and worn but charming photo album with pictures of Dracula and Vlad when they were younger, along with plenty with a young girl with black and violet hair she didn't recognize.

"It wouldn't be a birthday without revisiting some old memories," Vlad said with a cheeky smile as he opened the album.

The first picture he wanted to show his family and Elona was a painted portrait of a baby Dracula drinking blood from a baby bottle, and Elona couldn't help but coo and go 'aww' at how just too cute and adorable he looked so small with a big moon round face but still had a sharp but tiny aquiline nose and wearing a black diaper with his feet raised up as he held the bottle and gave a wide eyed look with his sapphire eyes sparkling with innocent curiosity.

"Aww, Dad is so adorable as a baby," Mavis cooed.

"He sure is," Elona said with a smile, "He reminds me a little of my baby brother at that age, and he's still adorkable. I do miss him, though, and my sister."

"Speaking of siblings," Vlad said as he turned a page, "Here's one of my favorites of Drac and just being annoying to Lydia, heh, heh."

It was portrait of a very young Dracula, maybe around eight or nine in human years (though most likely around 50s), sticking his tongue out at a violet and white haired teenage Lydia glaring at him, making the others laugh.

Another picture he showed them had Dracula tightly bundled up in a rain coat and looking pretty unhappy about it, especially how he looked soaking wet and they laughed a bit more at this.

One portrait Vlad wasn't too happy about, and grumbled under his breath how he liked the raccoon better as a possessed demon, was a five year old Dracula bright eyed and smiling happily as he hugged tightly and lovingly to what had to be the original baby Lulu. This just melted Elona's heart as she looked at the portrait, certain now more than ever she got him the perfect birthday present.

The last portrait Vlad showed them had to be the most adorable one of them all, a completely naked baby Dracula first learning to crawl with his adorable baby bottom completely bare and just giving a toothless smile.

This was the very moment Dracula came up to them to ask Elona for another dance, but gave a cry as he saw his father showing off his old baby portraits.

"Ah! Dad, what're you doing, trying to embarrass me on my birthday?"

"Yes," Vlad smirked.

But Dracula just gave a blank stone faced look as he grumbled, "Dad, not cool."

His family and Elona laughed good naturedly and looked at a few more portraits of Dracula's older childhood years, but as they got to his teen and more mature years, he suddenly said,

"Okay, that's enough time down memory lane, let's have another dance, Elona, my darling sweetfang."

Elona rolled her eyes a bit, but took his hand for one last birthday dance.

Just before sunrise, Dracula gave a bit of a yawn and decided he was going to get some shut eye but everyone else was welcomed to continue to have fun. So they wished him a good day of sleep and most of his friends hung out for a while long before they would hit the sack and get some rest.

Vlad said good bye to his son and everyone else, as he too was getting tired and needed to return home before the Sun was too high up for him to fly home to.

Elona said good day to Dracula and couldn't help but smile as he took the new little Lulu with him inside to be. She too decided to get some rest as she gave a big yawn, making her realize how tired she was and how rare it was for her to stay up all night.

She said good bye to all her friends and headed back to her suite to get some sleep.

* * *

Inside the castle, Dracula had just gotten to his chamber door and was about to open it when one of the witch maids suddenly bust through and closed it behind her to block him off.

"Miriam, what are you doing? If housekeeping is still cleaning in there, I don't mind waiting until you're all done, but I really need sleep right now. (Yawn) I've thrown bigger parties than this one, but none wore me out this much, Elona sure can dance."

He momentarily had a far off dreamy look on his face as Miriam said, "I'm sure she does, sir, but it's crucial you don't go in there. I'm sorry, sir, but your chambers, uh, we tried to contain them, and even exterminate them, but we forgot they're indestructible and…"

"Whoa Miriam," Dracula said as he held up a hand to slow her down, "What are you talking about, exterminate what?"

She just gave a faint gulp as her eyes shifted around as she stammered, "Uh, truth bugs, sir. We thought we'd seen the last of them a few years ago, but we found a nest of them and they just spread to your chambers and…"

"What?" he yelled, making the poor maid flint before him, so he took a deep breath to calm down and said, "Well, truth bugs don't affect Vampires anyway, so don't mind me, I'll just get ready for bed and let you girls do your job."

"But, sir," Miriam pleaded, "it's not that simple, my sisters are revealing really embarrassing things about themselves, intentional or not, and if you hear something they say…"

Dracula gave a raised eyebrow, but just told Miriam, "It doesn't matter, do whatever you need to do to exterminate those truth bugs as quickly as possible while I get some sleep."

He made his way past her as indigo mist as she tried to stop him but it was futile, so she had to burst the door open quickly to see her master go wide eyed with some shock at the state of his chambers and the other housekeeping witches doing their best to contain the infestation of truth bugs, some already the size of a full grown werewolf. A swarm of dozens of truth bugs crawled all over the cobblestoned floor and upon the bare gray walls where thick puddles of slimy bug guts oozed from the walls and spread all over the floor, while worse yet staining his precious tapestries and even the giant portrait of him and Martha.

"Holy rabies," he gasped at the state of his room, making the half dozen other housekeeping witches freeze in place at the sight of their master.

They were so caught off guard by Dracula's sudden arrival, one of the maids didn't notice one of the medium sized bugs bite at her ankle until she gave a faint cry of pain and forced to say,

"Ow! I secretly stole extra ammonia for a stinkweed perfume potion I'm perfecting. Oh! Don't listen to me, forget what I just said!"

The confession made the bugs increase in size more as another maid tried to hide a giggle behind her hand, but also got bit by a bug and said loudly,

"Ouch! I like to read cheesy human romance novels."

"Ooch! I lick phones when no one's looking," another said, immediately regretting it as she gasped and covered her mouth.

"Ow! I never wanted to be a maid, I want to play broomball," another said with a broken voice colored with guilt.

"Ow! I saw the master hugging an old stuffed toy from his dad, and looking at old baby portraits of him naked, it was adorable," Miriam said.

"What!?" Dracula shouted angrily with an eerie otherworldly echo in his voice as he whirled to face her, his eyes an all consuming fiery blood red as an aura of dark violet and indigo mist surround his entire being, his cape softly yet sinisterly fluttered behind him.

"Aah! I'm sorry, Master, i-it's the truth bugs, I swear…please don't hurt me," Miriam pleaded meekly, suddenly overcome with a paralyzing fear her master will attack her as she quivered and held her arms over herself defensively.

All around the other maids began to quiver at the sight of Dracula changing as shadows encompassed the room to make the torches fade, a misted chill spread throughout the chamber so cold frost began to form on the floor and walls, and exhaled breathes could be seen in thick pale puffs. The fear Dracula projected psychically upon the maids now was so tangible even Lulu now sensed it so strongly she ran down from Dracula and hide behind one of the maids, squeaking low with fright.

Somehow, Dracula sensed this as he looked around for Lulu and saw her cowering and shivering with fear behind one of the maids. The expression upon his face changed from a burning rage to concern, slowly realizing what he was doing as shame came upon him.

He gave a faint strained groan as he gripped at his face and began to take deep calming breathes. Gradually, he and the ambiance of the chamber returned to normal.

The seven witch maids just looked upon him with trepidation and uncertainty, waiting for what he would do now as he just looked around at them with a stone face until he spotted Lulu behind one of the maids, looking at him with sad fearful eyes.

"Lulu," he said quietly as he reached out to pick her up, but she gave a fearful shriek as she ran away to hide behind a low hanging tapestry.

Dracula's heart just dropped as he frowned, wanting to reassure his new little friend but he was brought back to reality as one of the maids gave another cry of pain and said involuntarily,

"Ow! I'm sexting with Bill the waiter."

Many more truth bugs grew more, snarling with a vicious hunger as one bit at Dracula's leg.

"Ow! Stupid bug," he groaned as he kicked the bug away.

"As you can see, sir," Miriam said timidly, "It could take a little while to get your chambers cleaned of the infestation, and they're indestructible except for over feeding them with an absolute honest truth, and we've already revealed a lot of embarrassing things about ourselves."

Dracula gave a sigh as he steeled himself, knowing what he had to do.

"I sucked a human's blood while on a date with Elona a couple of months ago," he said in a low monotone.

One of the larger bugs exploded in a great burst of slime and guts, covering Dracula and the maids in bug ooze.

"Centuries ago, I fraternized with human women because I wanted to charm them into being with me forever."

Two more bigger bugs exploded, but Dracula was unfazed as he got covered in bug ooze and prepared one last big and deeply personal honest confession.

Through his teeth he said quietly, "I'm having difficulty controlling my Hunger, and crave human blood still. I love Elona so much, she is my soul mate. I want to make love to her, make her mine forever."

As though a fireworks show on the Fourth of July, the remaining swarm of dozens of truth bugs exploded in a successive wave of each other, drowning the chambers in a lake of slime and bug guts for some long seconds.

Dracula and the maids had their eyes tightly shut until it was over, slowly opening their eyes to see the slimy oozing disaster before them.

Dracula stood as still as a pillar for a long second, then just spun at a rapid sonic speed like a black whirlwind and was clean of slime in a half second.

Miriam timidly asked him, "Sir…are you alright?"

He just sighed quietly as he said, "I'll be fine. Maybe you're right, I'll have to sleep somewhere else in the hotel for a while."

He gazed at his coffin, completely drenched in truth bug slime. But his gaze went to a shivering clutch of tapestry in a far corner, his face dropping in concern as he slowly approached the hiding Lulu.

"Lulu," he quietly called, "It's okay, I didn't mean…"

She just dashed away to hide behind his coffin, giving a sad tittering squeak to make Dracula's heart ache as he reached out to her.

He just gave a deep sigh as he said, "Have my room cleaned as soon as possible, and take of care of Lulu really well for me. I'm going to pack a bag."

His tone became colder as he then ordered, "And you will forget anything you heard in here, nothing gets outside these walls."

"Yes, sir," Miriam complied as she contritely asked, "Where will you be staying, sir?"

Dracula gave it some thought, and said he'd let them know shortly.

* * *

Elona pulled out some leftover sausages and mashed potatoes from the oven in her kitchen as she was hungry again after the party and decided to have something to eat before bed.

Going to bed during the day through her bio-rhythm off a bit, but she didn't mind too much as she did it for Dracula.

She sat down on her couch to watch one of her favorite shows when there came a knock at her door; opening it she became surprised and happy to see it was Dracula.

"Hi, Drac," she greeted happily, "What're you doing here? I thought you'd be asleep by now."

"Uhh," he groaned a bit awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck as he began to explain, "Well, uh, for some reason my room got infested with truth bugs and it's going to take a couple of days to get all the bug juice cleaned up, and even my beautiful coffin needs some work, so, uh, I uh, was wondering or actually kinda hoping uh, could I stay here for a couple of days, y'know if it's okay with you?"

Questions flowed Elona mind as she gave a bit of a confused look; What were 'truth bugs'?; Why would he want to stay with her, didn't he have a back up chamber or something?; And how long would a 'couple' of days actually be? And where was Lulu?

"Uh, I guess," she said low, "But don't you need to sleep in a coffin or something? At least that's one detail about Vampire mythos stuff I remember, or is that detail exaggerated or what?"

"No, it's true," Dracula shrugged, "I just don't need to sleep in it so often, not that I don't need sleep, I totally do like everybody else, but that doesn't mean I can't sleep in a non-coffin place, thing, whatever. But, uh, it's also pretty handy for when uh, I have to uh, regenerate my energy and stuff, or some crap or something."

Again, Elona just gave a bit of a confuse look, but she also couldn't help but chuckle at his babbling with such awkward nervousness, but asked reasonably,"Couldn't you stay with Mavis and Johnny?"

He frowned a bit as he said, "I would, but Mavis thinks I'll just keep Denisovich up too much. Unbelievable, the little devil finally got his fangs, and she's still keeping him on some crazy cuckoo sleep schedule."

She just smiled as she said, "Well, it's been a little while since I lived with a man, but it's only for a little while, I guess it's okay. Come on in, make yourself comfortable?"

"Thank you."

There seemed to be a lightness in his step as he walked into her suite with a moderate sized and old leathery 19th century bag in his hand, and this made her remember something else about Vampire myths she just remembered.

"Oh, right, a Vampire can't cross a threshold unless invited," she mumbled.

"Now that's an exaggeration," Dracula said with a bit of insult, "First off, it's still my hotel and I can walk into whatever place I want, and second, I'm a gentleman and it's rude to walk in to somebody's place without being invited first, so I'm old fashioned that way."

Elona just shrugged as she said, "Hunh, I guess that makes sense. However, I still occupy this suite and it's my home, so I want to lay down a few simple rules."

"Of course."

"First, you clean up after yourself or have Housekeeping do it, I don't want it to be a stereotypical guy and girl living together with the guy a total slob and the woman has to pick up his dirty laundry and dishes because he's too lazy to do it himself. Second, we keep things as they are between us in the…intimacy zone, no arguing, end of story."

Dracula tried to keep his face expressionless, somehow not surprised but still hurt at the rules she laid down.

So he just said snidely, "Yes, Mom." But then genteelly said, "Of course. In the meantime, I'm going to get ready for bed as you look ready for it."

He couldn't help but admire blissfully how beautiful she looked in a soft cotton hotel robe and slippers, which he was certain she wore underneath comfortable feminine pajamas or even a sassy nightgown.

He pushed the thought aside quickly as he said in a single breath, "I'm going to the bathroom to change, be right back."

And he disappeared in a microsecond.

A few minutes later, he returned to the living room to find Elona on the couch eating a leftover dinner and getting ready to watch something on TV.

Somehow nervous yet eager to join her, he asked, "May I join you?"

"Sure," she said with a smile, feeling a little embarrassed but somehow intrigued in seeing him in an elegant but simple black evening robe, soft black slippers, and she saw fuchsia colored pajama pants, "You're welcome to have some leftovers in the fridge, if you're hungry."

"No thanks." He just smiled at her, grateful she was still trying to make him comfortable.

She gently patted on the side of the couch inviting him to sit next to her, and he sat down and put his feet up one a leg rest, gently put an arm around her shoulders as he asked,

"What are you watching?"

"A really old documentary show that's been reassuring to me for most of my life," she said, "I know it's a little dated, and you'd think I'm a total nerd but I love it. Remember I told you one of my favorite scientists was a guy called Carl Sagen? He was one of my inspirations to study science and stuff, but he's also a little bit of a philosopher. It's called Cosmos: A Personal Journey, would you like to watch it with me?"

He gave a bit of a raised eyebrow, but shrugged as he said, "Never heard of it, but okay."

"I hope you like it."

The show began on a lovely quiet note, the music soothing yet its quiet melody flowed with a feeling of mystery and wonder quietly beckoning to be discovered which made Dracula curious yet at ease.

He looked over at Elona momentarily and she seemed at ease as well, tranquil and content.

On a distant shore somewhere in Ireland, the host, the late Carl Sagen began, _"The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be…"_

Over the hour the old science documentary played, while Dracula had to ask some questions when he didn't understand something and Elona explained the best she could, it got Dracula thinking about how everything was connected and made from the very essence of the universe itself, now understanding a little better what Elona once said about being made of 'star stuff'.

"This Sagen guy often talked about living creatures being made of the same molecules and stuff," he said, "But seeing as how I and a lot of my friends are undead, I'm not sure it applies to us."

"Of course it does," Elona reassured him as she cuddled to him, "He always mentioned about _intelligent_ beings being made from the same elements throughout the universe, and I know it includes monsters and you're just as intelligent as humans, if not more. I could rant on and on about how I've seen you're not so different and capable of the same emotions as people I knew, yet you're better people. But I think all that speaks for itself."

Dracula smiled at this as it warmed his heart, but it dropped as he remembered, "But you also once said you hated Vampires because of our arrogance; and with the way he spoke of valuing life and this planet in all its forms, I think I understand a little why now."

"But I know that's not you," she tried to reassure him more, "not any more. You've told me so as we read the book. Speaking of which…"

She went to go find it and he knew what she wanted to do, but part of him was reluctant to do it today as he remembered things he didn't want to think about ever again.

They had left off at a part where the main character of the book was seducing a very impressionable and naïve Lucy, while secretly also trying to court his real lusted prey, Mina Harker.

"I know you already told about some stuff that happened with these women," Elona said, "But, tell me more."

Dracula gave a small sigh as he told another part of his side of the story, "Okay, but I want to keep it short, 'cause we need sleep, remember? I honestly didn't even drink Lucy's blood that much, and she was a nice enough girl even though I liked Mina a bit more at the time. So, I gave her a chance as she, uh, changed."

Elona gave a bit of a look of suspicion as Dracula just said quickly, "I'll explain later, but I'm trying to say is that I was still selfish and only thought about what I wanted, and was intent on having one of those girls as my bride, so I didn't see them as people but prizes. Mina was the real prize that I wanted, but because she was betrothed to another man, despite my efforts I respected the social expectations of the time, and so Lucy was merely a consolation prize. But I continued to try and win Mina while flirting and having my fun with Lucy."

He saw Elona's face become hard, and he could sense what she was thinking even without psychically reading it.

He quietly pleaded to her, "Hear me out, you know it's in my past and it was a long time ago. In the few times I fed on Lucy's blood to make her uh, more like me I was too narrow minded or didn't care about the consequences of my actions; my feelings for Mina made me blind to how it made Lucy jealous and obsessive with me to the point it got her killed."

Her expression softened a bit, feeling some sympathy for him knowing the man he is today despite his dark past.

He then gave a small laugh as he told her, "But I don't want to be such a downer at the end of my birthday, so I'll just tell about some rather funny stuff that happened with me and Lucy. She was having some trouble with her new Vampire powers, but I tried to show her how to control them like how to levitate or turn into a bat, or how to hunt mice and scorpions and other stuff before moving on to bigger prey. She got the hang of it eventually, but she kept crashing into walls and stuff so badly like on those epic fail videos on Youtube or that old America's Funniest Home Videos show on the TV, hah, hah, hah."

Elona gave a small musical laugh, almost picturing what it had to be like as Dracula continued, "This one time when I went to go visit Lucy at her home, I flew into her bedroom window as a bat but she closed it just before I could get in and I crashed into it hard." Elona chuckled as she pictured him as a bat with a smooched face and wings spread across a glass window. "Yes, I'm sure it was so funny, but it still hurt so much I slid down and fell for a few stories and hit the ground and left a bat sized cracked hole in the stone pavement. Vampires are tough, but do feel some semblance of pain, y'know."

Elona tried to hold back a small laugh, but couldn't help but find it funny.

"Anyway," he continued, "I got into her room as mist and hid near her door to surprise her, y'know to tease and have some fun with her, but it opened hard and nearly crushed me and felt like forever before it closed. It was that Arthur guy and some other guys that came to check on her or something. Anyway, I also remember this one time we tried to uh…make out in her coffin, but as she was still learning it wasn't easy to move around in it, and as cozy as coffins are they're still really tight spaces, y'know.

"I also remember seeing Lucy try to seduce that Arthur guy and she was still having trouble controlling her powers, she tried to jump onto him but instead tackled onto his friend Quincey and he got so freaked out he just ran around yelling 'Get her off, get her off, get her off! Hah, hah, haaah!"

Elona laughed at this as he exaggerated that last part, as she probably would have reacted the same way but it was still hilarious to hear about.

They gradually calmed down and wiped some laugh tears from their eyes.

However, Elona was curious, and a little frightened by one detail Dracula had yet to explain to her.

"I have one question," she said in a bit of a shaky voice, "So, you biting Lucy, and other humans I bet, the whole 'Vampire bite' thing, that's real?"

Dracula gave a saddened look, hesitant to answer, but he knew he would have to explain this to Elona sooner or later.

"Yes," he low, seeing the look on her face as she waited for him to continue, "It's a little hard to explain, but yes, I can turn humans into Vampires with a bite, if I chose to, which is what happened with Lucy."

"Okay," Elona breathed low as a chill went down her spine, which Dracula sensed all too well as he tried to reassure her.

"But it's okay, like I just said; only if I chose to. You see uh, eh, it's a kind of Vampire venom."

"Vampire venom?" Elona said skeptically and a bit apprehensively, "So, that's real?"

"Yes, but not to worry, I haven't used it in a long time and it would take a little while to explain what it is and how it works, so it's a story for another time."

Elona gave it some thought and decided he was right, and it was getting rather late anyway as they both needed some rest.

"Okay," she said as they stood up and she hugged him, "You'll have to tell me about it soon, as you've piqued my curiousity again. Well, we should hit the sack and you're welcome to chose one of the extra bedrooms to sleep in if you want."

"Uh, actually," he hesitated with a goofy grin as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I was kinda hoping to uh, sleep with you."

Elona went a bit wide eyed as he stammered out, "No, no, not like that, that's not what I mean, eh, uh, I-I meant like, uh, snuggle like in the hearse, just for today like a sleepover."

He gave a crooked smile, clear he hoped for the answer he wanted while Elona was really hesitant about the whole thing.

She gave it a thought for a long minute, finally giving her own smile as she couldn't say no to the adorkable face he looked at her with.

"Okay, just for today," she said with a smile, leading him to the master bedroom.

He made himself comfortable as she brushed her teeth and took her required medicine for the night before coming to bed.

He gave her a look as she told him, "You see, I still take my meds like you've kept checking I do for the last several months, Mr. Worrywart."

He just gave an amused smile as they got cozy under the bed covers, smiling lovingly to each other as an idea formed in his mind, a bit of fear tingled in him as he tried to push it away.

"Goodnight my darling Count, or as you Vampires say good day," Elona whispered, intimately stroking his cheek.

"Sleep well, my love."

Dracula shifted over to her and touched her cheek tenderly as he felt her covered bosom slid beneath his own chest as she snuggled close to him, his fear for her and the urge to save her grew.

"Elona," he said gently.

"Yes, Drac?" she answer sleepily with half opened eyes.

"Look at me," he whispered soothingly as he brought her closer into his embrace and gently held her soft face.

Old habits died hard for him. If only he took control of his actions, but he couldn't help himself.

His hypnotism powers were activated and she was under his control. Of course he knew he didn't want to take advantage of her, just like that jackass Jason. But for today, he could use a different way to make sure she belonged to him forever, that didn't involve drinking blood from his chest by an open wound. He hadn't done that since... Dracula pushed that memory out of his mind, wishing to forget about what had happened the first time he fell in love with a human woman, long before he met Martha.

Having Elona remain perfectly still with a smile on her face, Dracula leaned forward, inching his face closer to hers until his lips barely hovered above her own. But he didn't kiss her just yet. He slid his tongue down her cheek to her neck, savoring the taste of her soft skin. Reaching up one hand, he pulled the collar of her nightgown back to expose her elegant neck.

The room fell silent. Nothing but the sounds of Elona, under hypnotism, groaning in arousal at the small pain she felt at her throat as she felt as Dracula kissed and gently nipped at it. The other sound came from Dracula's lustful breathing as he reclined Elona's pillow and he crouched over her figure. His thighs brushed across her own as he gently pushed her down against the mattress.

Then Dracula leaned forward again, and passionately, pressed his lips to her own. Elona returned his kiss, raising her legs to wrap around his own. Sliding her fingers through his hair she slid her tongue into his mouth to meet his own. Their tongues met in a fiery dance while they shared their moment of passion. Sliding, shifting, dancing their tongues and their lips continued their battle, the arousal of both Dracula and Elona growing with each passing moment, leading Dracula to forget his promise to not make love until she was ready and on the brink of ejaculation.

Dracula didn't want to draw any blood tonight. Human blood is so fatty and you never know where it's been. He still used near blood or blood beaters, but he kept himself under control so as not to unleash his Hunger for human blood and not able to harm his beloved physically. He wanted to keep Elona alive and healthy, so he decided he would inject a small bit of his own Vampire venom into her veins through the bite, as he carefully prepared to sink his fangs into her throat and gave a gentle nip that barely broke her skin, his breath hot and steamy upon her soft neck.

But he didn't want to use too much so he would pull away at the last possible second.

But at that moment, the skeleton phone started screaming. Dracula's head shot up, crying out as the sudden interruption. He stumbled backward and tumbled right off the bed. His spell on Elona broke and she lay on the bed, dazed and staring up at the ceiling breathing a bit heavily.

As the skull phone continued to scream, she gradually came out of her trance as her head cleared and she asked with a bit of a slur, "Drac, what's going on?"

"Damn interruptions, whose calling at this hour?" he yelled in some frustration as he got up.

"Hey, don't blame me, boss," the skull phone complained as it continued to scream, "I'm just doing my job."

Dracula finally answered as he yelled, "Yes?"

"Sir," a woman's voice said politely, "Your coffin is cleaned up. Would you like it brough to Miss Parker's suite?"

He took a bit of a deep breath to calm down as he said with a cold tone, "No, thank you."

He then hung up as he got back into bed with Elona as she looked at him a bit confused and asked, "What was that all about? And what just happened, did you want to tell me something?"

He hesitated for a moment as he tried to think of something to say, finally saying low, "Uh, nothing, it was just Housekeeping telling me my coffin was cleaned and I don't need it now, and so uh, I'll be spending the night here."

"Okay." She got comfortable under the covers again and just snuggled close to him as she shut her eyes and went into a peaceful sleep, none the wiser of what he just tried to do.

His face was stoic for a time, wondering if he should try again but decided against it for now.

He will find a way to help her, and make her his forever when the time is right.


	27. Happy Holidays at Hotel Transylvania

Happy Holidays At Hotel Transylvania

It all just made him squeamish, all the cutsie overly saccharine sweet things Esmeralda told him she had seen happen over the past long indeterminate amount of time between Dracula and that human woman.

Yet, a few of those details greatly intrigued him, especially what Dracula tried to do with her very recently.

"Thank you, my sweet," he said sweetly as he gently petted Esmeralda's head affectionately, making Bela and his friends give not so subtle gag noises.

Having grown tired of only dealing with Bela's less than intellectually stimulated friends within the grotto, he demanding they take him to the edge of the forest where Bela had to frustratingly wait for hours, being unable to even set foot upon the bridge to the hotel.

"So, what're we supposed to do, short stack?" Bela demanded grudgingly, "It's been weeks now, and still nothin', we're stuck in a corner. Uggh, if not for this accursed curse Vlad put on me, I'd just rip apart that hotel stone by stone right now! It'd at least make me feel better."

Carridine and Jiangshi strongly agreed with him, wanting so much more than just standing around talking about stuff when there were chances of causing chaos, but they were frustrated to be held back by their supposed master just for reasons.

Quasimodo just vented his own frustration as he said, "You don't think I'm not pissed at ze whole situation?! I'm stuck in zat damn hell hole for who knows how long, and I'm ze one pounding at zat idiotic, brainless twit for weeks to release and scare off ze humans once more and you're all just complaining about 'no action' to satisfy you're pathetic brutish egos! You can all do whatever you want with ze humans, but ze hotel is mine and she will not be touched, do you damn imbeciles understand?!"

All three Bat Cronies just frowned at him as he breathed a bit heavily.

Finally gathering himself enough to calm down, Quasimodo rubbed at his temples a bit as he said, "I just need a little more time with zat giant pinhead, and I promise you and the rest of your swarm will have your chance. My plan with zat last infestation of truth bugs would have worked as well, but for some reason they all gathered in Monsieur Dracula's chambers, and ze Housekeeping can be too good at zeir jobs for zeir own good. Years of lying dormant and zose bugs proved useless."

Bela just gave a low growl as he asked coldly, "So what are we supposed to do, tiny? It just seems we're stuck at square one."

Quasimodo gave a sinister smile as he said, "Just wait a little longer, my violent friends, as I have one last plan in mind and it's genius in its simplicity, so try to follow me. I will let Glenn out, and surely plenty of humans will run in terror and never return to ze hotel, but that will now only be ze cherry pit on top. My precious Esmeralda told me Monsiuer Dracula tried to have his way with ze human woman in a most inappropriate way, and if I can show zat to her, surely she will want to leave immediately and you can have your way with her, and zat will show how much of a weakness she has become to zat pompous fool."

"If you say so, short stack," Bela said dryly, "and how long is that supposed to take?"

"Be patient," he sneered a bit, "A few more weeks or months maybe."

"Months!? Ugggh," Bela groaned, certain he couldn't wait that long, "It might as well be centuries, for all the bad that will do."

"If you want out, that's fine," Quasimodo retorted to him, "You're free to leave and I'll handle my revenge myself, because you clearly don't have the patience or brains to carry it out. Besides, that overgrown Neanderthal's shackles are almost damaged enough for him to get free, and I promised he could 'make friends' when I'm done. You all do whatever you want now if revenge is no longer your first priority, but I promise you getting at ze humans will be to your malicious hearts desire, and _Monsiuer_ Dracula's pathetically precious girlfriend will be the sweetest of all."

He sneered evilly to himself as his smile slowly became a low insidious laugh, which the three Bat Cronies at first just frowned at. But the thought of what their little ally was proposing grew steadily in its true appeal as they joined in his low laughing.

* * *

Inside the hotel, the mood was more lively and welcoming as Johnny got everyone ready in the mostly empty lobby for a family tradition he had wanted to do since moving to Transylvania.

"Okay, everybody, we're almost ready!" Johnny called out to his extended family as the Drac Pack, the ladies, and even the rambunctious werepups gathered together as Johnny helped Clifton prepare his digital camera.

Mavis couldn't help but give a growing toothy white smile as she saw everyone looked so flamboyant and jolly, but it dropped a bit as she realized one important person was missing.

Using her Far Sight, she looked for her father but fortunately she didn't need to look far as her X-ray vision showed her he was trying to hide behind a nearby wall.

"C'mon, Dad," she called.

"No, I look ridiculous," he blatantly refused.

"No, you don't," Mavis groaned, "Johnny, Dennis, and I are all wearing the same outfit and we all match."

"You always look adorable in anything, Mavis, Denisovich is just precious, and Johnny…eh, he's Johnny, but he still looks ridiculous. Me? This is just humiliating."

"C'mon, Drac, it won't be so bad," Frank tried to encourage him, "Besides, this costume's growing on me, I might like the human version of the holiday."

"You think you look stupid, Drac?" Wayne groaned, "Look at me and my kids, but do you hear me complaining?"

"No, only grumbling every two minutes, dear," Wanda lightly teased, making Wayne give her a dirty look as she just smirked a bit.

"C'mon, everybody," Johnny groaned a bit, "this is a family tradition and it'll be really quick, just one shot and we're done. I know it gets a little embarrassing, but that's part of the fun."

"I'm not doing it," Dracula out right refused, "I don't care if it's a tradition, Johnny, I won't humiliate myself like this."

"Please, Drac," Johnny begged, "It won't be so bad. Besides, you've already got the ears for it."

Everyone gave low chuckles or snickers as Dracula frowned low from behind the wall.

Finally having had enough of Dracula's childish whining, Vlad just went and pulled his son by his ear from behind the wall as he scolded, "Enough of your pathetic whining, Drac, you're going to be in this family portrait and that's that, no excuses."

Dracula gave a small exclamation as Vlad dragged him to the open space for the family Christmas portrait, but made sure his black cape was completely wrapped around his figure as he glided into place, determined not to let anyone see him in his embarrassing getup as he frowned deeply.

As he got into place to the far left of the small gathering, he had to admit everyone else did look ridiculous if still somehow jolly and festive; Frank and Eunice were dressed all in bright red and white fur lining as Santa and Mrs. Claus, even down to Frank with a fluffy white Santa beard and hat, and Eunice with bonnet with a grandmotherly feel; the Weres and all of the werepups wore fake fuzzy antlers and red noses with LED lights to make them glow to make the all look like Rudolph's extended family to go along with flamboyant and personal Christmas outfits; Murray actually took well to being Frosty the Snowman in snow white wraps, wearing a top hat, a festival red and green scarf, a button nose, and an actual corncob pipe while Nefi looked elegant dressed with tingling Christmas bells and bangles; Griffin dressed up as a silly penguin with a top hat with holly around it and a bow tie while Carrol dressed up as a wreath in a rather naughty way; and finally Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis were all dressed as elves right down to the smiling skull shaped bells on the ends of pointy hats and shoes, Mavis in an icy blue which beautifully brought out her eyes, Johnny in bright red to go with his unruly wild red hair, and Dennis in a deep pine green.

The only one who seemed out of theme was Vlad, who wore big goat horns, a shaggy brownish red beard, cloven hoofed shoes, and a heavy brown fur cloak covered in cobwebs.

"Who're you supposed to be, Dad, one of those messed up reindeer?" Dracula asked with a snark.

"No, I'm Krampus."

"Whatever," Dracula groaned, "This is still ridiculous and I still don't see why I have to do this."

"Johnny said it's a family tradition and you know how I feel about family traditions, as mashugana as it is. Now stop complaining and smile for those infernal contraptions." Vlad slapped Dracula on the shoulder hard to make him exclaim a bit and made his cape reveal a bright red and green elf costume, right down to the green tights and red elf shoes.

"Put on the hat, Drac," and smile," Johnny said as he made sure everyone was in place, tallest in the back and shortest down front.

"Fine," Dracula groaned, "Like this?"

He put on a bright red elf hat with a tingling smiling skull bell as he gave a forced and rather disturbing Joker-esque smile, making everyone just stare at him awkwardly.

"Uh, Drac, this is supposed to be a happy picture, Johnny said, with his own frown, "not a weirded out disturbing one, and you promised to really try this year. I just know my family back in California will find it so awesome I'm carrying on this tradition. So, try to smile like you mean it."

Dracula hated disappointing Johnny, and did remember making such a promise earlier, but his undead heart just really wasn't into it right now.

"I'm sorry, Johnny," he said with a sigh, "But, I'm just not feeling it right now. I think the only thing that'll make me smile now is if Elona were in it."

Johnny gave a bit of a confused look as he said, "I invited her to join, but she thought she'd be intruding, even though I said it's cool."

Dracula became momentarily disappointed until a familiar female voice said, "Wait, I'm right here."

Dracula's heart just soured as he saw Elona wearing a rather sleek and sexy elf like outfit colored silver, icy blue, and snow white with a very short sleeved tunic with a modest wide V-cut, blue leggings and silver knee high elf boots.

"Hi, everyone," Elona said with a crooked smile, "Isadora made it for me at the last second. I know, I look ridiculous."

"No, you look beautiful," Dracula told her charmingly as he took her hand and eyed her over with a smile, slowly twirling her around to see her whole outfit, but his face dropped a bit as he said, "I look ridiculous."

Elona tried to hold back a smile as she said, "No, you look adorable, you even already have the ears for it."

He just gave an unamused look as everyone else laughed good naturedly.

"What're you supposed to be, Elona?" Mavis asked.

"I thought I was some kind of elf at first," she said, "But with the snowflakes and frost theme maybe Jack Frost, or maybe a girl version, like Jill Frost, I guess."

"Well, you still look really nice," Mavis said with a smile, "And everybody's here, so we're finally ready for the Creepmas picture."

"It's Christmas, Honey," Johnny corrected her but shrugged it off as room was made for Elona to stand next to Dracula.

Frank, Eunice, and Vlad took up the back row; from left to right in the middle were Wayne, Wanda, Johnny, Mavis, Dracula, Elona, Murray, Nefi, Griffin, and Carrol; finally Dennis got down in from with Winnie and the dozens of werepups.

Clifton growled as he adjusted the cameras and Johnny encouraged everyone, "Okay, everyone, say 'Jingle!'"

"Jingle!" everyone echoed.

There came a few flashes to make spots and starbursts dance in their version, but it quickly past as Dracula groaned, "Finally, it's over."

"Not quite, Drac," Johnny told him, "We usually take a few pictures just in case, and try to get the right one."

Dracula just gave a defeated groan, but with Elona by his side he figured he could get through it.

At least a half hour later, they were finally done and Johnny took his digital camera while Clifton took the old film camera to get the photos developed.

As everyone went to change back into their regular clothes, Dracula spun in a swift whoosh of indigo mist and was instantly back in his usual black gentleman's attire, making Elona smile in amazement as it never got old to her.

"Ah, much better," Dracula breathed with relief.

"Actually, I thought it was fun," Elona said, "it wasn't so bad, Drac. It reminded me a little of a Christmas tradition or two my family used to do."

He gave a bit of a raised eyebrow as he asked with curious intrigue, "Really, like what?"

"One of my favorite traditions was an ugly Christmas sweater party my parents threw every year for friends and family," Elona said with a bit of nostalgia, "Everyone would wear adorable yet the tackiest Christmas themed sweaters they could find and we get together for a nice potluck, some games, sometimes even watch an old Christmas movie together, and even tell embarrassing funny stories about each other, and I remember some silly and classic Christmas music playing in the background, my favorite was always _Felis Navidad_ , I guess because it was always so easy to remember. Another was we got to open one present on Christmas Eve as kids, and it was always a new dress for me and my sister and a new formal jacket for my brother my mom made for us to wear to church. I've never been into religion as much as my mom, but it had its nice moments during the service like the singing and candle light service for Silent Night, and then the cookies and punch afterward."

Dracula wasn't really sure what some of that was or meant, but the way she spoke about it with such happiness mixed with some sadness melted his heart.

"That sounds ridiculous," he laughed a bit, making her give him a look as he quickly corrected himself, "But sweet, too. I remember some holiday traditions with my family from when I was a kid, but nothing too elaborate until I got older."

"Like what?" Elona asked curiously.

Dracula just shrugged as he said, "Oh, the usual, we call it Creepmas instead of Christmas, for reasons I think you already know, but they're really not too different. We got presents and spent time with family, even sometimes went out and sang scare-ols around the neighboring lands. Mavis and I had our own traditions for a while, singing the scare-ols and telling her stories of Krampus and she'd leave roach and scorpion cookies and sour milk for him when he left presents for her if she was a good and mischievous little monster."

Elona gave a cute laugh, making Dracula smile at how musical it was to him and laughed a bit as well.

"You'll have to tell me more about all that," she said, "maybe we could combine some traditions for Christmas together, after the Holiday party for the hotel, of course."

"I don't see why not," he agreed, "I wouldn't mind giving the ones you mentioned a try."

"It would be nice to do an ugly sweater party again," she said a bit sadly, "but it's okay, I'll always have the memories, and that's what's important."

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek as she went to her suite to change as Dracula got an impulsive but wonderful idea. But first he would need to encourage everyone else to join in.

* * *

At least a couple of weeks later, a new package was delivered to Elona's suite by Isadora, and this really surprised her as she opened it to find a soft wool Christmas sweater with an adorable but tacky design of a kitten in a cute tiny red Santa hat and riding a reindeer skeleton upon a green and white snowed background, and spider web snowflakes all over red and blue sleeves.

Elona couldn't help but smile at the sweater as Dracula just continued to try and spoil her with his grand gestures and gifts in one form or another.

She also found a quick note from him saying to come to Johnny and Mavis's suite in a half hour for a party.

At first she didn't know what to make of this, but considering what it meant she couldn't help but feel excited as a little girl.

She soon arrived at Mavis's and Johnny's suite and was greeted happily by Mavis with a hug and more hugs from everyone else.

She looked around for Dracula and saw him coming with two red and green mugs with images of snow white Christmas trees and skulls on them full of hot steaming cocoa with eyeballs in them, and she couldn't help but smile at the ornate and yet tacky Christmas sweater he wore; red, green, and white with a smiling skull with a Santa hat, skulls and bats, and spider webs all over it.

As she took the mug he offered she then noticed everyone else wearing tacky if adorkable sweaters as well and how the suite was decorated with wreathes, garlands, and twinkling skull shaped lights all around, and in one corner was two trees, one a traditional evergreen Christmas tree with traditional ornaments, red garlands spiraling around it, tinsel, and a five pointed star at the top, the other was a rather disturbing looking 'tree' stark white and made of bones with eyeballs for ornaments and a skull with glowing eye sockets and covered in spider webs atop it.

Elona couldn't help but smile at how disturbing yet cheery and homey it made the place feel.

"What do you think, my sweet worm?" Dracula inquired with a toothy smile as he put an arm around her shoulders, "I hope it's close to what your family did for the holidays."

"You did this for me?" Elona breathed with flattery as her heart melted and she felt tears glass over in her eyes, "Oh, Drac, thank you, that's so sweet of you."

"I don't just plan big parties, y'know, I can do small and simple, too. Whatever kind of party there is, planning it is my specialty."

"You do throw the awesomest parties, Drac," Johnny cheered him with a smile as he held up his green and white skull mug with hot cider, "Actually, my family does similar parties back in Santa Cruz, only it would be for the whole neighborhood, and sometimes things got pretty crazy, but they were always so much fun."

"So now that we're all here," Mavis said, "what should we do first?"

There came a knock at the door, which Johnny answered and a zombie bellhop rolled in a cart full of delectable foods, the aroma of which made everyone's mouths water.

"Dinner and a chat is a good start," Wanda suggested, "with this next litter I'm carrying, I'm getting some serious cravings."

"Good idea," Eunice agreed, "I look forward to seeing that movie Johnny picked, something about a guy's life in a town at Christmas."

"Later, Eunice, and don't spoil the surprise," Johnny said as he helped himself to some chicken in gravy slices, and screaming mashed potatoes, and an assortment of other goodies.

Unsurprisingly, Dracula made sure Elona only took certain foods and a certain amount that was good for her and won't overwhelm her.

The extended family and friends then gathered around comfortable seats together for a nice chat as well as a board game of the latest Trivial Pursuit, everyone teaming up as couples while Dennis, Winnie, and the rest of the werepups played their own games, ones tamer than their constant wrestling and play fighting.

Johnny was first to roll the dice and waited for one of the others to ask him a question to fill in his blue playing piece.

As the game went around, everyone had some interesting things to say about the answers they gave for the questions such as one about a popular product that was no longer in circulation and it reminded Mavis about her father briefly going into advertising to try his hand at creating and marketing a personal product.

"Humans certainly find some weird things cool for some reason," she said, "Actually, it reminds me of this one time when I was a kid he made these really big bat wings that I struggled to just get around the hotel in. I just threw them out of my window and somehow they ended up with this human guy and everybody panicked there was gonna be a war with the humans. I was so scared of disappointing him but I didn't want to fight with the humans, so I confessed how I really felt about them. I tried to like them, but they were just so ugly and stupid. Dad was disappointed, but we worked it out in the end. Despite the whole embarrassing thing, I was glad when they were gone. But, then he tried to market bat winged kid floaties called the Mavy-Savy, and they were almost worse."

"Oh, man," Johnny laughed a bit, "that had to be super embarrassing."

Everyone gave some light laughs as Frank said, "I remember being told that by Hank, I'm sorry you had to go through that, Mavis."

"Eh, parents are embarrassing at any age," Johnny shrugged, making Dracula give him a look, "Take my folks, half way around the globe and they still check up on me if I'm eating right and have clean underwear and stuff. And while that was a funny story, Honey, you get to tell a funny story about someone else, like one of us."

"Oh. Well, in that case," Mavis said with a sly smile, "Does everybody remember what Johnny was like when he first came to the hotel?"

Most of everyone gave a yes and more light laughs, yet those like Elona were not in the know, so Mavis told her story,

"Before it was discovered he was really human, we thought he was Uncle Frank's right arm's cousin, and I didn't understand why he freaked out at perfectly normal stuff, like one of the spider's saying hi to me, or Uncle Griffin saying hi to him as well. But, I didn't really care as I just liked him so much and he made me laugh with how so adorably awkward he was, I guess because somehow I could relate."

More light laughs were shared, even Johnny joined in good naturedly with his ever easy going nature, Dracula adding on as he said,

"I have to say, now that it's been a few years, my favorite part had to be not just how oblivious he was at first but when he finally figured it all out he just freaked and started screaming louder than a wailing Banshee, ran around all over the lobby before riding crazily on one of the maids' brooms." His face loss some amusement as he got to one part he wasn't proud of. "Of course that's when he crashed in my poor Mavy-Wavy, and I guess I indirectly and unintentionally brought them together."

"Well, I'm so happy you did, Dad," Mavis said with a smile as snuggled Johnny close.

For a moment Dracula gave a bit of a scowl, but it quickly changed into a smile as he just shrugged and brought Elona a bit closer to himself.

The game continued for a few more minutes as a question was then asked about a famous person and what the title of their memoires was.

"Speaking of memoires," Frank said, "Who here has read mine, Pieces of Me?"

"I have, Honey," Eunice said with a smile.

"Besides you, dear."

"I've read some," Wayne said, "But with my job and so many kids, I haven't been able to finish it yet."

"Sorry, Hank," Murray shrugged, "I haven't gotten around to it yet."

"Actually, I wanted to ask you a question about something, Frank," Griffin said, "there was this one part where the original owner of your left foot was a crazy arsonist, doesn't that contradict your fear of fire?"

Frank just frowned a bit as Griffin said, "Apparently, he didn't think fire was that bad."

There were a few low laughs, but Frank just gave a bit of a smirk as he shot back, "At least I don't screech like a little girl about something nobody can see. Besides, you know what they say about length in proportion to size."

"Ooh, burn from Frankenstein," Murray said with a grin, "A rare irony if there ever was one, I love it."

"What are you talking about?" Elona asked curiously.

"You know how it is with a man in relation to his height and…" Frank began, but Elona stopped him there.

"No, no, not that, I meant with Griffin screeching like a girl," she said as she tried to hold back a smirk.

"This one time I pranked Griffin by the pool by pantsing him," Wayne laughed, "He never knows when he'll be pranked."

Everyone just laughed again, but Griffin's glasses just glared slyly as he said, "At least I have the advantage for any prank revenge."

"And I can out revenge prank all of you any day of the week," Dracula proclaimed.

"Oh really? I'm still cookin' up something to outdo my last prank and that one you pulled on us months ago."

"Maybe I should give you the purple nurple again." Dracula gave a sly smile as he made crab fingers as though to pinch something, making Griffin glare at him in a dare.

"That's enough, you guys," Wanda said sternly, trying to calm things down a bit, "We're supposed to be playing a nice game, not fighting over who can pull the best prank."

"Although, that last one Drac pulled on you guys months ago was pretty elaborate," Elona said with a smile.

"But it's the simple ones that can be the best," Frank said, "There was this one time Murray let loose a really big one in the lobby right in front of Drac."

He, Griffin and Wayne laughed hysterically at this, making Murray frown as he grumbled to himself.

"Actually, that was you, Frank," Wanda said with a smirk, "or rather your bottom half, but still you."

"I knew it!" Murray yelled.

"That actually reminds me of this one time when I was still in school," Johnny began as he tried to calm things down a bit as well, "my friends and I were picked on by this one bully who tried to pull pranks on all the smaller kids, and he poured honey and then feathers on me and a couple of my friends and called us chicken boys. He finally got caught by the principal and got suspended from the school for a month, but not before I heard the principal pranked the guy himself by threatening to send him to clown school to really show him how the pros do it, but it turned out he was really afraid of clowns."

"Really, Johnny?" Dracula smiled, "Then he would've been terrified of my birthday zombie clown, heh, heh, heh."

"That's a little cruel," Elona said with disapproval, but smiled a little as she said, "Although, there is this thing called exposure therapy, and a lot of kids are afraid of clowns at first. Still, maybe that bully got what he deserved as I really detest bullies, whether or not they deserve a second chance."

"True, but I think they do," Johnny said, "I mean take Drac here, he's all about second chances, how he gave me and Mavis a second chance, even him and his old man even after how Vlad treated us and poor Dennis."

Elona looked up at him again and gave a heartwarming smile which just melted Dracula's heart as he smiled back.

Despite his own dark past, and what he almost did to her more recently, somehow the sentiment was true as he has had many second chances over the last couple of centuries. Yet, some guilt weighed heavily upon his heart.

"Speaking of which," Johnny continued as he gave a sly smile, "I've been dying to show you this, Elona. When Dennis was first born, Drac was so desperate to see his new grandchild he actually dressed up as a nurse just to get into the delivery room."

Elona gave a surprised look with a raised eyebrow, certain that couldn't be right.

"Dracula in drag?" she gasped, "No way."

"See for yourself," Johnny smirked as he brought up and showed a video of it on his phone.

Elona just went wide eyed and laughed hysterically as she watched Dracula in a nurse's uniform, a blonde wig, and with pillows to make a very pronounced female hourglass figure as he danced around the room happily holding an adorable new born baby.

Dracula just face palmed so hard he left a hand sized red mark on his face as he said accusatorily, "How did you get that?!"

Johnny just shrugged as he said, "Couldn't resist; I was recording the birth and I just caught it. Never deleted it, 'cause it's gold."

Dracula frowned deeply as he gave a groan at his growing embarrassment in front of his beloved as she just laughed so hard she almost wet herself and shed tears she had to wipe away as she tried to say between heavy breathes,

"Oh, my god, Drac! This is a side of you I never thought you'd have, you're just full of surprises. Th-that's too much, ha, ha, haaah!"

She tried to calm down and give him a hug to cheer him as he grumbled, "I'm going to get you for this, Jonathan."

"Wait, I got one," Wayne interjected, "When we were at Camp Winnepacaca and Drac was showing Dennis around, we were shown to one of the old cabins he stayed in as a kid and the kids there showed us one of the coffin bunks Drac had slept in and it still had an old pee stain in it. Dennis tried to call him 'Papa pee-pee.'"

Everyone laughed some more, even Elona as she couldn't help herself.

Mavis then told her, "Actually, one of my favorite memories was teaching Dennis to say 'bleh-bleh-bleh', and you know how much my dad hates that."

Dracula just groaned deeply again as he complained, "I thought we were supposed to tell stories about each other, not humiliate me the whole time."

"But the best ones are about you, Drac," Frank said with a grin.

Dracula just scowled deeply, and as much as Elona wanted to hear more she decided maybe he'd had enough now and said,

"Actually, I have a funny story about my little niece and nephew back home. The last time I babysat them for my sister, I wasn't paying attention because I was so caught in a book but they were playing barber or something and Ally had scissors and her dad's electric razor and just savaged DJ's hair, shaving off so much of it he looked like my balding grandpa. I wasn't sure to laugh or be angry, I was just so shocked by what I saw and Liz was just so pissed with me and didn't trust me to babysit her kids for months. I just wish I had a picture, poor DJ looked so ridiculous."

While her new friends knew little about her family, they could just picture what happened and gave low chuckles.

"Maybe it's also because my little brother, Sean, can be a bad influence on them because he's such a prankster himself sometimes. I remember this one time when we were still in high school he did the classic bucket of water on the door prank on the school gym door, and instead of water he filled it with blue paint to dump on his tough gym coach. It took a week for his coach to wash all of the paint off and he's been called Coach Smurf ever since. Sean got suspended for a month for it, and Coach Smith even doubled down on toughness on him because of it but somehow got through to my brother as he talked to him about pranks and what interested him. Coach Smith really wasn't so bad, and even became an ethical mentor to Sean, but that's a story for another time. You really had to be there to see what I mean."

She gave another musical laugh to her stories, her eyes sparkling with a bit of nostalgia as Dracula listened to her memories of her family.

He could see it in her eyes, and hear it in her voice how much she truly must be missing them.

A thought came to him to do something special for this when there came a sudden rumbling crash not too far from the suite. Everyone was momentarily confused about the noise when a suite of armor guard burst through the door to announce urgently,

"Sir, Glenn has gotten outside the hotel!"

"What!?" Dracula shouted with shock as he stood up straight in a half second, "How the hell did he get out?"

Elona was about to ask who Glenn was and what was going on, but Dracula was gone quicker than a blink with everyone else following immediately while murmuring with growing worry and confusion with Elona the last to follow not too far behind wondering what was going on and if Dracula was going to be okay, as he seemed to get pretty upset.

* * *

The fresh crisp air, the vast open night sky with sparkly dots, and the amazing way everything looked to be bigger than him as he looked around with a seemingly childlike innocent awe and wonder as he climbed the side of rocks that lead out of his cave, wanting to see more.

Friend Quasi was right, it was better on the outside and there are lots of new friends to make and play with. Why Friend Drac keep him in dark rocky place for so long and not make new friends? It's so lonely and boring in hard, dark and rocky cave and no friends to play with.

Now, Friend Quasi help him be free from bad nasty chains to go out and play with new friends.

Glenn climbed up the slippery rocky slope of the island upon which the hotel perched until he reached one of the outer walls of the hotel, which lead to the open tennis court where humans and some monsters played the fun recreational game.

For a few minutes he watched in a fascinated trance as a little yellow ball was hit back and forth between a human woman and a Gillwoman holding weird looking sticks while other humans and monsters cheers them on.

"I got it, I got it!" the human woman shouted as the ball came careening through the air to her.

"No, you don't!" the Gillwoman mocked playfully to her opponent with a smile.

But the human woman proved she could and did as she hit the ball back to the Gillwoman.

Mesmerized by the simple game taking place before him, Glenn watched in awe and wonder at the game as his eyes followed the little ball as the guests hit to each other and back again… back and forth…back and forth…back and forth…

After a few long and fun minutes of watching the females play, the ball finally got too far out of the human woman's reach and she missed a hit as it gradually bounced away.

"Yeah!" the Gillwoman yelled in her victory as her family congratulated her, "That's how you do it!"

The human woman felt begrudging disappointment she had lost the game, but she was a good sport about it as she and her family also congratulated the Gillwoman as they too had made friends with each other.

"Good game, Greta," the human woman said, "but we'll go for a second round, and I'll beat you next time."

"You're welcome to try, Mandy," Greta challenged good naturedly, "the loser has to pay for the next dinner and drinks."

"You're on," Mandy accepted as they shook hands.

The two families just set to resting for another game as the kids, two humans, a boy and a girl and two Gillmen kids, also a boy and a girl, played their own game of tag together as they playfully chased each other near the outer wall, not noticing a large presence watching them.

The giant gradually rose into sight of the small gathering of monster and human friends with a goofy crooked smile upon his homely face as he grunted with a rumble in his incoherent voice,

"Fun, play."

The humans and Gillmen finally noticed the watching giant and just stopped everything as though becoming frozen in time.

Glenn gave a goofy childlike laugh as he rose into full view of human and monster families, his gargantuan shadow over took them like an intangible blanket, his large head even eclipsing the nearly full moon, as the families stared up and up and up in frozen wide eyed awe.

"Whoa, cool," the kids breathed low as they watched the new arrival.

Greta and Mandy just continued to stare at Glenn, not sure what to do as their minds just seemed to shut down and lose all synaptic function and ceased sending bio signals to their bodies.

Finally, a microscopic blip went off in Mandy's mind as she asked with a squeak in her voice to her new amphibious friend, "Friend of yours?"

The only answer Greta gave was a frightful scream, "AAAHHH!"

Mandy and their husbands just screamed with her, making Glenn think this was some kind of new game with new friends the naïve giant gave off a fearsome roar to join in and just frightened the families even more.

"Play," he grunted as he began to reach out to seemingly grab the children, unaware of the potential danger they were in now.

Motherly instincts kicked in for both Mandy and Greta as they ran and just grabbed their kids away before Glenn's hand ensnared them and possibly squeeze them tight.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Mandy yelled with growing terror.

"I don't know!" Greta yelled back, trying to hold back panic in her voice as she backed away with her children behind her to protect them.

"Well, you're the monsters, you should!" Mandy yelled, making Greta give her an indignant dirty look.

The giant began climbing over the wall, hoping to play more with his 'new friends', his heavy stomping drawing the attention of more hotel guests to see what was happening at the tennis court.

As the small gathering of hotel guests grew, Glenn laughed innocently again as he grunted, "Friends, play."

He finally made it up the wall and fully into the tennis court, making the gathered crowd break out in a screaming riotous frenzy as dozens of hotel guests began running in a panic, somehow a number of them got their phones out to record and upload what was happening like scenes from a found footage film.

Glenn gave another roar for the 'game' as he stomped heavily into the tennis court to leave behind giant foot shaped spidering cracks in the recently newly repaved court.

As he attempted to follow the crowd, his giant hands swiping and swinging too close at the dozens of hotel guests he didn't pay attention to where he was stepping as his large feet got caught in the net to make it snap off its hinges and entangle his ankles, making him flail his arms as he tripped and fell hard enough to rip and topple the green camouflage and fences surrounding the court and wacked the new ball machine hard enough to damage it and spill out fuzzy yellow balls.

Luckily he just managed to catch himself on his hands as he tried to kick the net off of his feet and finally got up with a wobble to nearly stumble back again like a toddler still learning to walk but not before slipping and sliding on dozens of loose tennis balls. He slipped and fell hard again, giving a loud 'oof', but he managed to pick himself up and caught enough balance to make his way deeper into the open court and out again to follow the crowd.

He tried to swipe at any would be hapless screaming victims again while laughing like an overly playful child as a small platoon of armor guards ran out to put themselves between the panicking hotel guests and the rampaging Glenn, their razor sharp spears at the ready as one of them shouted an order,

"Cease, fiendish giant, return to your hovel immediately!"

Glenn just gave a curious and confused tilt of his head for a moment, but just gave a goofy smile as he grunted with a laugh, "Toys!"

He grabbed two of them, making them actually scream with some fright as he set to playing with them like life sized action figures, bumping them together as they made metallic clangs in a mock fight as he made gibberish fight sounds.

The rest of the platoon took action to save their 'brothers-in-arms' as they thrust their spears into Glenn's thick skinned legs and his behind.

"Aagh!" he screamed with pain and surprise, but fortunately he had elephant thick hide and the spears were only like painful pricks to him, but it was enough to get him to drop the two he captured but also make him irate as he glared at the guards and grunted, "Bad toys!"

He wacked at them like annoying bugs, making them drop their spears as the rest tried to bring him under control as they thrust their deadly weapons at the imposing and simple minded giant.

It was at this moment Dracula and the rest of his friends and family finally got outside to see what was happening, and Dracula became mad as he flew over the watching crowd of hotel guests towards Glenn with a cold glare in his icy blue eyes.

Elona tried to make her way through the crowd to catch up with him, wondering what was going on and hoping she could help.

As Glenn continued to try and defend himself from the 'bad metal toys' he mistakenly stepped onto some dropped spears which tore through his flimsy cloth shoes and into softer more vulnerable skin under the sole of his foot making him cry out in pain like he stepped onto sharp thorns.

This was enough to make him stumble back and land on his back side with a loud crashing thump as he cradled his foot and began to quietly weep to make it better.

"Glenn!" a familiar voice yelled with authority and a coldness to it, "What are you doing outside? You should know better, you're not allowed outside!"

Dracula levitated right up to Glenn's view with a deep dark scowl on his face like a disappointed father figure and his arms crossed tightly across his chest as he began to loudly scold the giant,

"Bad, Glenn! You did very bad things, I just fixed up that tennis court and you broke it again! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Glenn just looked back at the damaged tennis court with a bit of a blank and confused look as Dracula continued to scold,

"And you've scared my guests; that's a very bad thing to do. Bad, Glenn!"

He waved a figure at the giant as Elona finally made her way through the now smaller crowd as she watched a bit what was happening, and something in her observant mind seemed to connect things in a weird way which surprised even her as she got closer to the moppy ginger haired giant and a levitating mad Dracula.

"Answer me, Glenn," Dracula scolded more, "What do you have to say for yourself, hm?"

Glenn just stared blankly at Dracula for a long moment, but his face twisted down into a deep saddening frown as his lip quivered and he just started to cry loudly like an ashamed naughty little child.

It was at that moment Elona finally made it up to the loudly sobbing giant and the angered Dracula as she asked, "What's going on, Drac? Who's or what is this?"

"Glenn is supposed to be under the hotel," he said with a hard tone as he landed next to her and continued to glare harshly at the sobbing giant, his tears leaving rather large puddles, "Somehow he's gotten out when he should know better because it's dangerous for him."

Elona gave a bewildered look as she looked at Dracula and back at the sobbing giant she had never seen before, looking to her like a scared toddler caught doing something he shouldn't have. Yet, as she looked closer at him she wondered if he really was some sort of really young and innocently naïve giant child or something else.

She then said with a hard disappointed tone, "You keep him beneath the hotel?! That's horrible, why would you keep him lock up like that? It's practically imprisonment or abuse!"

Dracula just gave a bit of a raised eyebrow as he said a bit defensively mixed with authoritative controlling arrogance, "It's for his own safety, because it's dangerous out here. He's not like other monsters because he's a simpleton."

It was at that second the others finally arrived as Elona began to harshly accuse Dracula as she said, "That's still no excuse to keep him confined and chained up for God knows how long. Yeah, I see those shackles on his wrists, you've been keeping him prisoner under the hotel! I don't know if he's just a child or has a mental disorder, but that's no reason to keep someone like him confined in some kind of deplorable prison! He needs love and understanding like any other living creature."

Dracula felt taken aback for a moment, as though his human beloved was accusing him of being cold and apathetic to one of his fellow monsters, making him say defensively, "I don't keep him in a prison, the cave is a perfectly natural place for him 'cause most giants live in caves! And if he's not chained he tends to wander and he can get hurt, or hurt my guests as you can nearly happened!"

"That's still no excuse to keep someone like him imprisoned and neglected," Elona nearly yelled, "I've heard too much about cases like him, and I even knew about people with conditions like him and they deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion like anyone."

She then slowly went up to Glenn and called up to him as gently as possible, "Hey there, it's okay! Shh, shh, calm down, Glenn, it's going to be okay."

Glenn tried to calm down as he gave a sniffle and last moaning sob as he looked down at Elona and she reached up and gently patted his leg and gave a gentle smile to reassure him and he seemed to give a small smile at this.

As the others watched and listened a bit to what Elona and Dracula argued about, Mavis just asked, "Dad, how did Glenn get out?"

"I don't know, Sweetie Bat," he groaned, "but I'm trying to make Elona understand why we kept him hidden for his own safety."

"I don't know, Dad," Mavis said with a shrug, "She might have a point."

Dracula was just shocked with her and would have said something when a familiar unwanted voice called out, " _Monsieur_ Dracula! _Monsieur_ , forgive me!"

It was Quasimodo and he just ran as fast as his stubby legs could carry him, nimble and swift as he could be though. He was nearly out of breath and looked worn and sweaty in his ragged clothes and seemed covered in grime and bruises as he panted heavily to Dracula with a distressed and regretful tone,

"I'm so sorry, _Monsieur_ , but he just got away from me. I tried to stop him, honestly I did, but Glenn is just too strong and he over powered me. I had no idea when he put his mind to something, nothing could stop him."

Dracula gave a cold scowl to the demoted hunchback, which was just returned with an unusual innocent and creepily cute wide eyed look and a small quivering frown upon Quasimodo's round face.

"You were supposed to be looking after him," Dracula growled, "How did he get away from you if he's chained up in his cave?"

"He shouldn't be chained up at all," Elona said with a near icy tone to almost match the frosty and lightly snow covered mountains around them, "He needs support and care from real people in a comfortable and safe environment and let outside for exercise and fresh air every day. I'm not a doctor or social worker, but I just know that to basic human decency to help those like Glenn here."

"Well," Dracula said with a bit of a choke, hesitating as what she said sunk in, "we, I,… we're not human, so there."

His friends and family just groaned or rolled their eyes, and strangely so did Elona as she gave a bit of a laugh as she just groaned to him, "Dracula."

His face went from a stubborn scowl to soften to something like trying to hide shame as everybody stared at him judgingly. Suddenly feeling on the spot he just groaned out in frustration,

"Well, what would you have me do with poor Glenn? Just let him wander free in the hotel for the next century now?"

"No," Elona said, "I'm just suggesting, no really, really, strongly encouraging, that you have to treat him better than this. Maybe make his cave more comfortable and give him some companionship besides Quasimodo, help him stimulate his mind and work with his problems and stuff like that."

Dracula gave her a look of surprise, but also a growing understanding as he listened to what she said as she gently stroked Glenn's large hand and smiled at him as he laughed like a little kid and gurgled,

"Nice lady, friend."

"Yes, I'm your friend," she said reassuringly, "And so is Dracula and all of his friends."

Glenn actually looked doubtful for a moment as he glared at Dracula, but Quasimodo jumped in, "And so am I, right, Glenn?"

"Quasi, friend," he laugh as he nodded.

"Alright," Dracula sighed heavily, giving in to all the growing pressure, "I'll figure something out for him. But for now he has to return to his cave and stay there."

Glenn actually frowned and gave a moan, like a reluctant child feeling disobedient.

"C'mon, Glenn," Elona cooed to him, "Be a good boy and go back to your cave for the night, and I promise I'll come visit you later. What do you say to that?"

"Friend lady play?" Glenn asked with a crooked smile.

"Sure, we'll play," she said with another reassuring smile, then got an idea as a light bulb lit up in her head, "Hey, Drac, if he's good, he could come to the Christmas party in a few weeks, what do you say to that?"

"I'll think about it," Dracula said, "If he's a good boy and he behaves himself at the party."

Elona gave a smile to him as she said, "I'm so proud of you, Drac, and I know it isn't easy, what needs to be done but it's a step in the right direction. It's always so inspiring to see people redeem themselves for past mistakes, it seems so rare these days."

Dracula gave her a heartwarming smile as it melted his heart to hear her say, but Quasimodo just gave a dark smirk at this.

Dracula then ordered, "Quasimodo, help Glenn get back to his cave."

"Oh, _Monsieur_ , I honestly wish I could," Quasimodo said with a feigned aching groan, "but zough Glenn can be meek and docile, he doesn't know his own strength. In ze time I've had to look after him he at times accidently nearly broke my frail bones. Even now when he got out I think he accidently dislocated something."

Dracula gave a heavy annoyed sigh as he said, "Fine, go see the doctor about any injuries and breaks you might have."

"Oh, zank you, zank you, _Monsieur_ ," Quasimodo said with a bow as he kneeled near Dracula's feet, "But may I also ask to have my old job back, as it is my true calling, and I have learned my lesson. I understand now what I almost did."

"Don't push it, Quasimodo," Dracula said coldly, "I still don't trust you as head chef of the hotel."

The hunchback's face seemed to drop in concern, merely a mask to hide his growing humiliation and hatred for his boss, as Dracula looked at Elona as she just watched what he was going to do, but she did look a bit concerned.

"But it's almost Christmas, so I'll be nice about it," he said, "You can be a waiter, and we'll see what happens from there."

Quasimodo tried to keep his face straight to hide his burning anger, yet at this point he was desperate to take anything and get away from that pathetic and repulsive creature.

"Zank you, _Monsieur_ , you're too kind, mwah, mwah, mwah," he graciously said as he pathetically kneeled at Dracula's feet to kiss his sharp dress shoes.

"Stop that," Dracula said with a bit of a flinch, repulsed by the gesture and Quasimodo's behavior, "Don't act so namby pamby and show some dignity."

Quasimodo straightened himself up and gave one last bow as he limped, more than he usually did to keep up the charade of being hurt, on his way to the hotel doctor.

Dracula gave another sigh as he said, "Let's get Glenn back to his cave and then back to the party, it was going so well."

"That's a good idea, Dad," Mavis said, "I'll do it and meet everybody back in the suite."

"Thank you, Honey Bat, see you soon."

He then took Johnny aside as he said, "Johnny, I need a quick favor."

"Sure, Drac," Johnny said, "What is it."

Dracula whispered as quietly as he could what he wanted as Elona said good bye to Glenn as Mavis and Dennis lead him back to his cave.

Johnny couldn't help but smile at Dracula's idea as he saw the happy smile growing on Dracula's face as he watched Elona.

As Quasimodo limped away, he gave a look of disgust and hatred he knew words could never describe. His face then twisted into a sinister smile as he whispered to Esmeralda in his shirt pocket,

"Things didn't go quite as I had planned, my sweet, but it's a step in ze right direction."

She just gave a questioning squeak.

"Yes, with what you've told me, we will make ze human woman see _Monsieur_ Dracula can't redeem himself from every mistake."

They both shared a quiet but insidious laugh.


	28. The Holiday Party

The Holiday Party

In Liz's home office, she got close to finishing her work for the day when her computer began to signal her with a ring for a video chat.

Clicking to accept the call, Johnny's face appeared on her screen as he gave a goofy smile and said happily, "Hey, Liz, how's it goin'?"

"Hi, Johnny," she said with a polite smile, "I'm just finishing some work here, could I get back to you in a few minutes?"

"Actually, this won't take long, Liz," Johnny said, "I have a message and offer from Drac for you and your family."

Although Liz felt a bit annoyed at this brief inconvenience, it went to curiosity and intrigue as Johnny showed her a message from this Drac character she kept hearing about from her sister and Johnny.

She just smiled as she read the message and couldn't thank Johnny enough with her growing gratitude as she was nearly moved to tears.

* * *

"No, it hasn't been easy, Stew," Stewart heard Jason say over the phone as they chatted, him and his wife once more visiting their family, "Yeah, I'm lucky my old buds, Blake and Ryan, are letting me stay with them 'til I find a place of my own. And as grateful as I am for all you've done for me, Stew, like the job at the bank, it's hasn't been easy adjusting and that son of a bitch of a manager has written me up for the stupidest things. He even threatened that if I don't do what he wants and how he wants he'll fire me. What an asshole."

"Now, Jason," Stew said with a stern fatherly tone, "I know you're still having some problems, but you shouldn't be talking that way about your manager, whether or not he deserves it. If you have a job to do and it has to be done a certain way and it must be done, you must do it as it's required. Often we have to swallow our pride to do things we don't like to do, and it happened even in the Marines in my time because I knew I had to do what was required of me, and I know that's something you can understand."

Stewart heard Jason give a low affirmative groan as he continued, "Now you've come far in adjusting to civilian life, and I don't want you to risk losing that, so give yourself a little more time and I know you'll do great. In the meantime, there's other things to take care of such as your coverage from the VA and finding your new place."

"Yeah, you're right, Stew," Jason sighed, "But I'm also wondering about Elona."

"While I'm worried about her, too, we'll have to deal with that on the side until Liz tells us where she is," Stew said, "And you know I'll only give my blessing for you to see her again if you've called it off with any other women you might've been seeing while she's been away this past year."

"I broke it off with Sara months ago," he said with a groan, "and while she was pretty upset about it and no doubt still has the hots for me, it's over between us. I love Elona and it's her I want to be with."

"Good to hear," Stewart said with a smile, "For now we'll have to accept she won't be home for a family Christmas again this year. So be patient, and we'll wait for her to come home."

"Actually, I don't think we'll have to wait anymore," Liz said to her father as she held a couple of pieces of paper for him to see, "I want to tell everyone the good news, so you'll have to talk to whoever's on the phone later."

Liz had her suspicions of who her father was talking to, but decided to look past it for now as she was just too happy and excited about what she had to tell her family.

"I'll have to call you back, bye," Stewart said to Jason and beeped his phone off.

The rest of Liz's family gathered in the living room as she read a letter from an anonymous source via Johnny,

 _"To the Parker-Thunderwolf family,_

 _I am writing to let you know I have been seeing and involved with your daughter, Elona Martha Parker, for some months now and wish to tell you she is happy and safe in my castle and hotel._

 _I've seen how much she misses her family, and with the holiday season coming soon I wish to invite your entire family to my hotel for a Christmas get together and family reunion for Elona's Christmas gift and an opportunity to meet you all._

 _My friend and son-in-law, Johnny, has taken care of everything you need to arrive safely and I look forward to meeting you all soon._

 _Hoping you're all having a wonderful day and will have a wonderful time at my hotel._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Count D"_

Liz smiled the whole time as she read the letter as she then told her family, "And the rest here is all expense paid plane tickets, first class, can you believe it? We leave a couple days before Christmas for Europe."

"That's great, Liz," Sean said with his own smile, "But where exactly are we going, and who's this Count D, anyway?"

"Most likely the guy Elona's been seeing, the one we saw her with in those videos online, remember? If he signed it as a Count, he must be legit," Liz said, "And it just says from O'Hare International to Little Sig…Siggy…I can't pronounce this place's name, it's so weird, yet it sounds so exciting."

Daniel took one of the papers as he read for her, "Little Sighisoara, Romania."

"That's a funny name," Ally said with an innocent and cute laugh.

"Sounds weird to me," DJ said, but was still intrigued as he said, "I can't wait to go."

"Not the kind of exotic name for a place in Europe I'd expect," Sean said with a shrug, "but it could still be exciting if it means seeing Ellie again."

"This is just wonderful news," Maggie breathed as she tried to hold back tears, "I get to see my daughter again, and we can be a family again, God has finally answered my prayers. If she really is happy with this mysterious Count, he must treat her well and I wouldn't mind meeting him. Despite what Jason had done, it's in the past and God will forgive him, and perhaps this is a sign to move forward."

Stewart gave a raised eyebrow, as he wasn't so sure about that. As much as he wanted Elona to be happy, something about this seemed off to him.

"Let's not jump to conclusions, Maggie," he told her, "and while I agree we must move forward, we need to be sure this isn't some kind of scam and just how involved with Elona this 'Count D' is. For one thing, why wouldn't he give his full name or contact us sooner than now? Something about this doesn't sit right with me, and something about the name of that town sounds strangely familiar to me."

Liz just gave a frowning scowl to her dad as she gave a deep sigh and said, "For one thing, Elona said he's a very private man and some upper crust people are just like that to the point of being total recluses, and second, I think she asked him not to because Johnny says this is a surprise for her, and I can't think of a better Christmas present for all of us than this. So, I know you're ever the skeptic, Dad, and the need to be cautious, but I trust Johnny and for once just take it as face value and at least trust me on this."

"That's another thing, if this guy is old enough to have a son-in-law, which means a married daughter, isn't he too old for Elona? That could make her a gold digger, and I thought she knew better."

This made Maggie give a gasp as she grasped her chest at the very thought; so scandalous and outrageous.

"I don't know, Dad," Liz said with a frustrated sigh, "But, he doesn't look much older than her in that video we saw, remember? That has to be him. So please, stop being such a killjoy and trust me on this. If it means seeing Ellie again, I'm willing to take any offer I can. And I've talked with Johnny, and he's a good guy if a little scatterbrained, but I trust him."

Stewart gave a look of doubt, but decided for now to trust his eldest daughter. Besides, if this was for family, he had to be sure the entire family went together.

A few minutes later, after making arrangements and planning what to do when they got ready to leave, Stewart once more called Jason,

"Jason, I think we may finally know where Ellie is. Start saving and get packing to go to Romania."

****Hotel Transylvania, the Saturday of the Christmas Party

The time of the Holiday party had finally arrived, and everyone in the hotel scrambled to get the last needed preparations and details ready as Dracula watched zombies and Housekeeping witches put up the last of the decorations in the Great Hall.

Of course every now and then the zombie bellhops would stumble clumsily and ruin the decorations in a near comedic chain reaction, like a ladder loosing balance to slide down and fall upon the walking corpses and shatter them into a messy heap and pull down skull and evergreen wreathes or garlands to make poor Dracula face palm hard at such incompetence. Short setbacks like this gave the Housekeeping witches unnecessary extra work, so he also had the gargoyle waiting staff come in for extra help.

"Ugh, months of preparation and you moaning walking dunderheads bring it all down in five seconds," he groaned to himself, "You should really get brains instead of eating them, Lucifer knows you need them."

In no time flat, Miriam and several other witches fixed the decorations in flashes of sparkling green mist to make it the near perfection Dracula wanted.

He smiled at this as he thanked Miriam and the others as he then set to organizing the ghost tables to proper places throughout the Great Hall as he ordered,

"Fifteen to position seven; 33 to 9; 13 to 2; 34 to 18…"

For a few minutes there came the faint soft airy flow of ghostly tables as they flew around the hall to their assigned places, their smiles wide as they were eager to please their master.

When the Great Hall was nearly done, Dracula tried to keep his mind occupied with another chore which needed to be done, but as things were coming together to near perfection and getting quiet which made Dracula proud yet he felt he needed to stay occupied as a dark cloud of worry kept hanging over his head and he couldn't quite place what it was really about.

He took a short walk through the halls of his hotel and finally decided to give his dad a call, as he just suddenly felt like talking to Vlad.

He dialed Vlad's old, old number and waited a literal minute for him to answer.

* * *

In his dark chambers, deep within his massive cave, a skull phone shrieked loudly upon an antique wooden side table next to an ancient looking coffin as its top squeaked open to reveal a groggy and cranky looking Vlad in a matching nightcap and old nightgown.

He mumbled grumpily to himself as he finally reached for his phone and answered raspily, "Hello? What do you want? I'm tryin' to sleep, so I'm not interested in whatever crap you're sellin'."

"Well, hello to you, too, Dad," Dracula snarked back, but just let it slide for now as he said, "I'm sorry to be calling at such a late hour, but I just wanted to be sure you're coming to the party tonight."

"Oh, it's you, son," Vlad said as unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn, "Sure, I'm coming to the party, even if I have some doubts about what it's supposed to be about. But it's a step in the possibly right direction, I guess. But why are you calling me at this undevilish hour, anyway?"

"Oh, no reason," Dracula fibbed with a shrug, "I just wanted to talk for a few minutes. I guess I also wanted to know if I'm doing the right thing, ya know with Elona, because I have a big surprise for her."

"What kind of surprise?" Vlad asked.

"Eh, uh, I invited her family over to the hotel for Christmas," Dracula said with a bit of hesitation, "but I also have something else in mind when they get here."

"And what is it?"

Dracula told him, and his face lit up at this news.

"I guess I'm wondering if it's okay with you, or something."

"Of, course it is, that's wonderful news," Vlad said with a smile, if a bit annoyed, "I think she's good for you, despite being human. And as nice as it is to talk, Drac, it could wait until tonight, 'cause I really need to sleep. Besides, you need to get some sleep before the party tonight, if you don't want to have two left feet while dancing with her, and I'm not talking about borrowing your zombies' feet."

"Yeah, yeah," Dracula groaned, "I'll go to bed later, but I don't know if I can sleep with so much to do, I mean there's the food, and the waiters need to coordinate their tuxes with the party theme, and then the games for the kids…"

"Drac, you're over thinking it," Vlad said, "and I know you're a perfectionist, you get that from me, but you need to rest and let Mavis or Johnny take care of that stuff. Besides, if you don't get some sleep I'm worried you'll lose control."

A bit of a chill went down Dracula's spin as a part of his mind clicked on what he might have been worried about if not just getting everything ready.

"Well, uh…, I got it under control, Dad, so don't worry about it. It's been touch and go for a while, but it's gotten better. But, if it sets your mind at ease, I'll have something before the party tonight."

Vlad gave a look of doubt on his side of the phone, but just said, "See that you do, because it'll go from a nice Creepmas party with monsters and humans playing at being besties to your own personal Creepmas buffet, and we know what happened the last time that happened."

"Don't remind me," Dracula moaned through his teeth.

"Fine, and I'm also wondering, did you invite Lydia? It would be nice to see you two together for the holidays again."

"No, Dad, she's hated the holidays for as long as I can remember for some reason, Johnny would call her a Grinch or whatever, which I'll explain later. I highly doubt she'd like seeing humans and monsters even in the same place or interacting and stuff."

"That's too bad, but I guess it makes some sense, so hopefully she'll come for Creepmas at least. Okay, then, so you'll have a quick snack and get some sleep, and I'll see you tonight. Bye, son."

Vlad hung up, and Dracula knew there was no arguing with his father about Lydia. It was just a subject he will have to deal with at a later time, as much as he really didn't want to.

As much as he really wanted to finish getting things ready, it was all coming together enough nothing really needed his attention at the moment and he had time for a quick trip into town and a nap a little later in the day.

* * *

That afternoon in the hotel spa, Elona relaxed in a soft cotton hotel robe with her face covered in a green facial mask, her eyes covered in fresh cucumber slices, and Isadora unrolled curlers from her lush rich brunette hair to make it gracefully wavy, while Eunice once more worked on Elona's manicure in her own curlers and white robe, and one of Gustav's long tentacles gave Elona a relaxing foot massage.

"You're so lucky," Isadora said with a dreamy tone as she finished with Elona's curlers and began gently brushing her hair.

"Thanks, Isadora," Elona said, "But, what do you mean?"

"Uh, you know, going to the party with Master Dracula," Isadora answered a bit awkwardly.

Eunice just gave an unconvinced raised eyebrow to the head Housekeeping witch as Elona removed the cucumber slices from her eyes and looked at Isadora as she teased good naturedly,

"Why, Is, are you a little jealous of me and Drac?"

Isadora seemed to struggle with the hair brush as she got taken aback by the question, pulling hard on Elona's hair and making her scream, "OW!"

"Sorry, sorry, Miss Elona," she quickly said contritely, "I didn't mean do that."

"It's okay, Is, I'll be fine," Elona reassured her.

"But whatever gave you the idea I'm jealous of you and Master Dracula?"

"Well, you do have a big crush on him, and I see why, it's so adorable."

"Uh, eh, um…w-where did you get a silly idea like that?" Isadora tried to brush it off as she gave a big goofy, and really awkward crooked smile.

Elona just gave a soft scoff as she said, "I just noticed the way you look at him, dreamily like a teenager crushing on a hot pop star. Plus, I was told about how you crashed into a wall in Drac's office."

Isadora gave a squeak at this as she blushed a bright cherry red and just went speechless, making Elona and Eunice laugh.

"It's okay, Is, I know how that feels," Elona tried to reassure her with a smile, "My sister and I had huge crushes on some guys in our favorite boy band when we were kids, and we would giggle and gossip about how we'd marry them and stuff. But we eventually grew out of it when we finally got real boyfriends, and the rest is history."

Isadora just gave a shrug, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal as she squeaked out, "I thought I kept that to myself, how did you find out?"

"I'm just really observant, having studied sciences in one form or another most of my life and working at a museum, remember?" Elona said.

"Plus, it's the biggest open secret in the hotel," Eunice said with a bit of a laugh, making Isadora give her a dirty look.

"And girls just know this stuff," Elona said with a smile.

She then just shook her head as she told Elona, "Well, Miss Elona, I admit I've felt the sting only a bit, but he was married when I started working for him even before the hotel was built, as did most of the staff, so I've made my peace centuries ago. Besides, this one time he finally really noticed me at his daughter's 118th birthday, all of them singing together and he took a moment just to charm me as he sang."

Her face became momentarily dreamy as she remembered that moment and gave a deep sigh of happy content, then finally concluded,

"That's something I'll always fondly remember, and no one can take that from me. Besides, can you girls keep another secret? I secretly like to live vicariously through you, Miss Elona."

They all gave girlish giggles as Elona said, "Well, I hope I've lived up to your expectations."

Isadora just smiled and wiggled her eyebrows as they laughed some more.

A few hours later Elona and Eunice were almost ready, but there was one thing they still needed and they finally arrived as Miriam brought in two boxes and Isadora presented one to Elona.

"Your dress, Madam," she said with a curtsy, "I made it myself, and I kept as close to the holiday theme as best I could and simple. I hope you like it."

She opened it, and Elona's face just lit up.

* * *

The time of the first and long anticipated Hotel Transylvania Holiday Party had finally arrived, and it was ironically and unsurprisingly alive and kicking, yet elegant as a formal if family friendly soiree everyone at the hotel was invited to come to.

All around the walls of the Great Hall evergreen garlands hung to the top as they were held up by blood red bows with shining and smiling gold or silver skulls as they gracefully curved along near the edges of where the walls met the ceiling, along with evergreen wreathes or red and green wreathes made of skulls also lined the corners of the Great Hall, all lit up by a swarm of tens of thousands of multicolored twinkling fireflies to give life and wonder; while evergreen Christmas trees stood lovely and flamboyantly decorated with candles, silver and gold babbles, and topped with stars while interspersed as companions with bleached while bone trees with macabre yet happy looking eyeballs and topped with smiling skulls with glowing gold eyes sockets. Upon both types of trees, Shrunken Heads hung wearing crowns of holly, mistletoe, or glistening gold and silver intertwined tinsel with bats and skulls and stars as they offered the well wishings of 'Merry Christmas, Scary Creepmas,' or 'Happy Holidays' to any nearby guests.

The table clothes ghosts were the purest white and crisp as they smiled happily, with all the tables topped with centerpieces of red and green Poinsettias planted alongside smiling but snapping small Venus fly traps while encircled with more evergreen garlands or thorny wreathes.

Gargoyle and Zombie waiters dressed in their finest as they served their guests, while the Suit of Armor guards were polished to a sheen to make them shine like they were newly forged from the fire.

Upon the stage, a Zombie orchestra played charming yet bone chilling traditional Christmas tunes from the classic story of The Nutcracker, and directed by none other than Zombie Tchaikovsky while plenty of guests, both human and monster couples took to the center floor to dance.

The air permeated with the scents of delectable and scrumptious foods of both monster and human tradition, made by a prominent and Five Fanged chef Dracula hired just for the occasion, a bug chef named Jerome, who accepted the challenge of creating a feast for the grand occasion and to put his culinary artiste skills to the test, the results of which lined a far side of the Great Hall as a buffet monsters and humans flocked to and helped themselves to the wonderful foods of different traditions.

And it all just made Quasimodo want to vomit as his stomach twisted and churned at the overly sweet and saccharine sight of it all, just egotistic, superficial, and overly superfluous just for Dracula to win the ever disgustingly overrated and irrelevant approval of the humans as he greeted arriving guests as he walked and mingled around the Great Hall.

His face twisted with a scowl and sneered with pent up disgust that churned his stomach as he watched the growing crowd around him, every last one of them, monsters and humans, and even children all dressed up in formal and semi-formal wear for this enormous insulting travesty, and he had been forced to be part of it as he tried to loosen his collar in his white shirt in his new waiter's tuxedo as he just slowly walked around the Great Hall carrying a silver tray with tall crystal glasses of champagne.

A few minutes later, he maneuvered his way through the crowd and out the front door just to catch a breather and get away from it all, frowning and steaming along the way. Yet a familiar but unwelcomed face caught his eye as she made her way through the crowd.

"Why, _Mademoiselle_ ," he greeted with feigned courtesy as he gentlemanly took Elona's hand and kissed it, "You are quite the enchanting sight."

Elona was ready from the spa in her new dress, a long crimson red velvet gown which accentuated her hourglass figure, with long sleeves and an off the shoulders collar with pure white snowflakes lining around the collar, the end of her sleeves, and around the edge of the flowing skirt of her dress, all of which glimmered like a form of fallen snow against a red background, while her long lush brown hair gracefully flowing with wavy curls with a jeweled hair barrette made of ruby bats surrounded by pearls, and her face had just the right amount of makeup to enhance her natural beauty with hushed tones of blush, light fuchsia and red eye shadow, and red lipstick to make her pearly white teeth shine even more.

"Uh, thank you, Quasimodo," she said as politely as possible, if with some reserved disgust and doubt as his kiss on her hand and it once again gave her unpleasant goosebumps and made her skin crawl, "You look pretty sharp, too."

He just gave a bow as she tried to keep a courteous posture, yet he still made her really uncomfortable after all that happened in the last several months. Still, as it was the Holiday Season, and as it was the kind of person she was she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt as she said with a stern but sincere tone,

"Look, Quasimodo, I know about what you did in the past, as well as what happened the last few months, but the thing is despite all that I want to give you a chance at redemption. But it'll take time to earn my trust, even for me to forgive you. So, what I'm saying is if we're going to be working in the same place, we can be professional and put the past behind us and learn from everything, because things are changing for the better and everyone should be apart of it. I also hope this shows that things can get better between humans and monsters, and the past is in the past."

Quasimodo's face softened a bit as he tilted his head inquisitively.

"I'm saying we don't have to be friends, just professional, and this is a chance to start over, because if you continue down such a path like yours it's going to get you nowhere. Believe me, I've seen it and read about it too often."

For a long frozen moment, Quasimodo was actually touched by what Elona said; an inkling of him was even tempted to take her up on her word.

But it immediately passed as he remembered he had come too far to give up now, despite this current burdensome setback. So, while it will take him a while longer to reach his goals and set things right, he can still seize this opportune moment.

His face softened a bit with a smile of pseudo-sincerity as he said, "Oh, _Mademoiselle_ , you're too kind. Despite my foolish mistakes, I only wanted what is best for ze hotel and its guests, and zat is still my intent. Zough, you may have a point, and it's something to zink about."

Elona gave a nod and was about to wish him a good evening when he said, "And let us hope _Monsieur_ Dracula had learned from ze past as well."

Elona gave a confused look as she asked, "What do you mean?"

Quasimodo hid a smirk as he simply said, "Only zat he hasn't had ze best experience with humans, especially ze fairer sex."

"I know," Elona said a bit coldly, "He's told me about it as we read the book together, but how would you know about that?"

" _Mademoiselle_ , he is ze Count Dracula, everyone knows. And forgive me for being forward, but I also noticed an odd mark on your neck."

She rubbed at the right side of her neck self-consciously as she told him, "It's just a bit of a hickey, Drac and I made out a bit crazily a little while ago. Does it need more make-up? I thought I hid it pretty well."

"Oh, it's not so bad," he reassured her, "I'm just saying even zough he's also made his share of mistakes in ze past, he hasn't been ze best at learning from zem, such as when it comes to his daughter and grandson. But, for ze sake of zis new beginning between us as well as yours, my hope is he doesn't toy with your feelings as he did with Miss Harker all zose years ago, as well as considering what you went through before arriving at ze hotel."

For a moment, Elona was speechless as memories and old pains panged at her heart, sending chilling tingles down her spine and nearly make her heart pound.

But it passed as she took a slow deep breath and told Quasimodo with conviction, "He knows where we stand in our relationship, and as complicated as it gets sometimes I trust him, and he loves me just as I love him. Whatever happens will happen when we're ready, and as I said I want to put the past behind me."

"Of course, _Mademoiselle_ , I merely wish to caution you to his true nature, as everybody knows a Vampire can't change his fangs. However, seeing as how much he has shown to deeply care for you, let's hope things will be different with you zan it was with Miss Harker so long ago."

He gave a courteous bow as he took a new silver tray of crystal champagne glasses and said, "If you'll excuse me, I must get back to work. Enjoy the party, _Mademoiselle_ , and Scary Creepmas."

Elona could only have a blank expression on her face as he reentered the Great Hall, but on the inside she was freaking out a bit as she remembered her old fears and tried to remember what happened that night Dracula spent in her suite while his chambers were being fumigated.

Her mind was still pretty clouded from that time, but maybe for now it didn't matter, and whether or not Quasimodo had her best interests in mind, it will still take time for her to trust him and she needed to take what he just said with a grain of salt and her old skepticism.

She pushed the thought aside as she finally entered the Great Hall to meet with Dracula and just enjoy the wonderful Holiday Party so many had looked forward to for so long.

While Elona and Quasimodo had been talking, Vlad had arrived and looked around for his son in the vibrant and flamboyantly dressed crowd of celebrating guests, but someone else briefly caught his attention as Mavis waved him over.

"Grandpa Vlad, over here," she called to him happily as he saw she was chatting with a small group of friends and family, Johnny and Dennis, along with her old childhood friends, Hank, the 'son' of Frank and Eunice, Pedro the mummy and protégé of Murray, and Wendy Blob, all dressed for the occasion; Mavis in a bright blood red dress with a sparkling skull corsage on her left shoulder; Johnny, Dennis, and Hank all wore formal black or dark blue tuxes (Unsurprisingly, Johnny wore baggy shorts instead of pants); Pedro wore a black top hat with Krampus horns and a black bowtie; and Wendy had a pink dress with white spider webs on, or rather inside her gelatinous form.

"Hello, Mavis, everybody," Vlad politely greeted the small group as he hugged Mavis and Dennis grandfatherly.

"Yo, Count V, how's it hangin'?" Pedro greeted with an over done cool tone, unsuccessfully holding back a squeak in his voice.

"Hello, Mr. Count Vlad, sir," Wendy said sweetly.

"Nice to finally meet you, Your Majesty, I mean, Your Grace, I mean…" Hank just stammered nervously as he shook with trepidation, almost literally coming apart at his seams.

"A blabbering junior corpse puzzle, talking toilet paper light, and a grossly overly sweet talking booger," Vlad said dryly, "Eh, like father, like daughter, why am I not surprised."

All three gave some insulted looks at him, but Mavis quickly came to their defense.

"Grandpa, these are my old friends from back in the day," Mavis said, "before I met Johnny. They just made it for the party and I worried they wouldn't come."

"Oh, I knew I'd come," Wendy shrugged, "Anything for my best friend."

"Totally," Pedro concurred, "I wouldn't miss a chance to see monsters and humans mingling together; who knows maybe even see some take down action."

Johnny gave a bit of a dirty look to the younger mummy as he just said, "Oh, I doubt that, Pedro, monsters and humans have gotten along for years now, and besides the holidays are about coming together and it looks to me like everybody's having a nice time so far."

"Honestly," Hank said with a shrug, "I thought it was gonna be a disaster. I mean, when my dad first told me about that weird human monster fest a few years back, I thought he'd lost his mind, and I don't just mean literally. But now to finally meet you, Johnny, and your son, I have to say it's pretty amazing that humans and monsters can get along."

"Even better, you can Zing," Wendy said sweetly, "You and Johnny make such an adorably gross couple."

"Uh, thank you," Johnny said gratefully, if unsure to feel insulted or not, while Mavis just snuggled close to him with a fang filled smiled.

"I too have had my doubts about the whole 'humans and monsters can be best friends' thing, uh, Frank Jr. was it?" Vlad said.

"Hank, sir, Hank N. Stein, Frank's my dad."

"Okay, sure. Thing is I still have some doubts, but a shindig like this to make friends with each other a few at a time, I must say it impresses me but I'm cautiously optimistic about it. After all, look at my granddaughter and grandson-in-law here, or even Drac and his new lady friend."

"Speaking of which," Mavis spoke up, "I can't wait for you guys to meet her. I just know you'll like Elona, my dad's crazy for her, I've never seen him so in love."

"And speaking of Drac, I was looking for him first, and speak of the angels," Vlad said as he finally spotted Dracula greeting and mingling with guests and waved him over, "You kids enjoy yourselves, I'll see you later."

Vlad made his way over to Dracula as his son smiled wide and gave his father a hug as he said, "Dad, I'm so glad you finally made it."

"Scary Creepmas, son," Vlad said as he slapped his son on the shoulder and eyed him up and down in his Holiday attire, "My, my, don't you look…festive."

Dracula's new holiday tux again resembled his usual attire, but had an evergreen silk vest, a blood red dinner jacket, and his black pants and sharp dress shoes seemed to have a metallic sheen to them, while his snow white silk shirt also had a bat shaped bowtie with a smiling golden skull, and finally his black cape now had evergreen inner lining with glimmering designs of silver white snowflakes with skulls in the middle of each snowflake.

"Thanks, Dad," Dracula said, but his face dropped a little as he eyed his father up and down and said with some disappointment, "That's all you're wearing? Dad, this is a formal party."

Dracula gestured to his own attire, while Vlad was just wearing his own usual gentleman's wool tux and red lined nobleman's cape covered in cobwebs.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Vlad asked dismissively, "Besides, it's not like I have anything else to wear anyway."

"Yeah, considering you never got out of that cave for the last half millennium," Dracula snarked, "But still you need something to put you more in the holiday spirit."

He tapped his sharp chin for a few moments in thought, then gave a smile as with a quick wave of his hand Dracula made a tiny object appear in his hand in a puff of indigo mist and attached it to his father's jacket collar; a zombie Santa Claus riding a skeleton Rudolph with a flashing red nose light lapel pin.

"Much better."

"Eh, whatever," Vlad just shrugged, "So, where's the lady of the hour behind this whole sparkling get together?"

"Elona? She should be here by now. Wait, there she is!" His heart just began pounding hard as he saw his beloved through the crowd looking for him, and looking just breathtaking in her dress.

He waved her over as Vlad wiggled his wispy white eyebrows and smirked amusedly to his son, making Dracula give him a hard look as he said hard,

"Please, Dad, don't embarrass me. I really like her and I want this to be perfect."

"Whatever you say, Romeo," Vlad teased as Dracula made his way through the Great Hall to meet with Elona.

Just before he walked across to the other side to the front door, he stopped to nervously smooth out his hair, and took out a tin case with blood mints and quickly popped one into his mouth as he brushed off his tux. Finally, he took a deep calming breath to bring his apprehensive excitement under control.

At last, he gentlemanly strolled up to Elona as he said, "Elona, my Beloved, welcome, welcome. Oh, wow! You look lovely tonight."

Elona smiled as she blushed a bit more behind her makeup, just awestruck at how handsome Dracula also looked in his flamboyant holiday tux, somehow it was so cheesy yet he pulled it off so well.

"Thank you, you look…wow, wonderful…and so…" Elona stammered a bit, suddenly feeling nervous yet flattered, yet there also lingered the small sting of Quasimodo's words from earlier.

But that past in a half second as Dracula said, "But something is missing."

He gave a momentarily thoughtful look, but smiled as he took out something from an inside vest pocket and happily showed it to Elona; a familiar but elegant choker with a deep pink jewel. She finally recognized it just as Dracula explained with a bit of a sad tone,

"It was Martha's, and it's all I have left of her besides Mavy. Even though I'll always miss her, I want you to have it. I was actually going to give it to you later tonight, but I think it'll go beautifully with your dress."

Elona smiled as he clasped it around her smooth neck, then gentlemanly put his arm out for her to take to lead her out to the dance floor as he waved a signal to the stage where the Zombie orchestra limped away to trade places with the Dia de los Muertos Mariachi band, all three skeletons also dressed in vibrant yet formal outfits for the occasion, and began playing a very appropriate sounding and personal favorite song for Elona, Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano, making her smile big as she breathed with amazement,

"You remembered!"

He just smiled back as he gently took her hand and put the other on her waist as the music began to play:

 _Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad,_

 _Prospero ano y felicidad (3X)_

 _I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas_

 _I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas_

 _I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas, from the bottom of my heart._

As these were really the only lyrics to the song they repeated a few times over with the upbeat happy rhythm of the classic Latin pop song, save they added 'Scary Creepmas' for the final verse.

Upon the dance floor, Dracula and Elona just got lost in themselves as they danced to the music in a pseudo-Latin tango mambo like style, though far less flamboyant and more simplistic in their moves as Dracula just lead in the dance and occasionally spun Elona with one hand to make the flowing skirt of her dress just flare open and wide in a wondrous scarlet pool, while his cape also would flare and flow with the movement of their dancing. One time it even came alive to cut in between them and dance with Elona on its own, making her laugh with innocent child like giddiness.

A few minutes later, the music finally ended and the party guests gave applause as the Mariachi band bowed and the zombie orchestra returned to play more, beginning with another of Elona's favorites, Carol of the Bells, for a nice waltz.

More people, humans and monsters, also joined on the dance floor for a nice slow dance; Johnny and Mavis; Hank and a young skeleton girl; Murray and Wendy; and even Vlad joined on the dance floor as he charmingly and gentlemanly took the hand of a purple faced and pleasantly plump hag, who just giggled like a little girl as she took his hand.

For Elona it all was just pure bliss, for she couldn't remember the last time she felt so happy and at peace. Even the words she traded with Quasimodo shortly before were now faint memories on the wind and forgotten, irrelevant to anything that mattered most in this moment with the man she loved.

The way he held her as they danced, the world faded away as though it were only the two of them and once more she knew he was here to keep her safe, make her pain be forgotten as though it never happened and was merely a bad dream. Yet this still felt like a dream for her, a wondrous dream. Something beyond words, beyond a spiritual experience no words existed to describe to mere mortal understanding; even beyond the highest understandings the greatest intellectual philosophers in history would ponder about in the deepest meanings of metaphysics which is childish musings in comparison now.

This moment…this moment was what her entire life has been leading up to, finding that piece of herself she didn't realize had been missing her whole life. While it seemed cliche with how that went through her subconscious, it was as though in her heart of hearts, in the deepest unfathomable depths of her soul she finally understood it for what it truly meant. One time she had thought she understood such a concept, but it now seemed that was merely a stepping stone not even brushing the surface, and now she had achieved true enlightenment and understanding.

Perhaps a Vampire can't change his fangs, but that doesn't mean he can't be a better person and in turn make her a better person because of it. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

Her life began now, in this moment with Dracula, tonight at this wonderful holiday party.

A few minutes later, the slow waltz of Christmas music came to an end for now as Frank and the Drac Pack got up on stage to perform their renditions of happy Creepmas songs.

Meanwhile, Dracula lead Elona to one of the far tables and ordered some drinks from the gargoyle waiter, Bill, and just sat down to catch their breath.

"Are you having a good time, my Love Bat?" he asked a bit overly sweetly.

Elona just smiled as she gave a small lady like chuckle as she said, "I'm having a great time, Drac, wonderful even. Thanks so much for the dance, and thank you for the beautiful necklace, I really hope Martha wouldn't have minded me having it. In a weird way, it makes me feel more connected to you."

He smiled as those words just melted his heart as he said, "Of course, my Love, I'm so delighted you're having a nice time, and it's only going to get better as I have a surprise for you on Christmas day. But first, I'm hoping we can talk about our future together, although that can wait for now. You were just breathtaking on the dance floor, and did I say how beautiful you look tonight?"

She smiled, a little embarrassed but flattered as she pushed some rich brunette hair behind an ear as she flirtatiously asked, "And what about the future did you want to talk about? As far I see now, this is what our future looks like together."

Looking deep into each other's eyes as he gently smiled and came closer to touch her cheek as their drinks finally arrived, two none alcoholic ciders, as he said, "And it's how I see it for a long time to come, but it's only the beginning, and I hope for so much more."

He tenderly caressed her face and down her neck as he lightly massaged it, making her feel blissfully relaxed as she just smiled and prepared for the kiss he was about to bring upon her lips.

But for some reason at that moment, her thoughts once again popped to her earlier conversation with Quasimodo and what he said. Seemingly out of nowhere she pulled back a bit as she said,

"Could I ask you something real quick, Darling?"

He was a little surprised by this, but shrugged it off as he said, "Sure, what's on your mind?"

She touched at her neck as she asked with a bit of curiosity mixed with uncertainty, "I've been wondering about what happened that night. I know you said we just made out a bit, but my memory is a little fuzzy, so could you clear it up for me a bit more?"

Dracula froze for but a moment, his mind racing a bit with what to say until he finally said, "Nothing happened, we kissed and we snuggled for the night. Things got a little heated for a minute or so but then the phone screamed. Other than that, I promise you nothing happened."

"You're sure?" Elona said with some doubt in her voice, as much as she wanted to believe him she couldn't help but rub at the right side of her neck.

Dracula gave a small amused smile as he gently pulled her hand away from her neck and said, "It's just a hickey, you gave me one too."

He pulled his collar down a bit to show her but she didn't see it.

"I heal quickly, so it faded faster than it did for you," he explained, "I'm just glad I didn't actually bite you."

For but a fleeting moment Elona was relieved, but those last words struck a discomforting cord for her and only grew as her stomach seemed to drop.

"What?" she asked low, a hint of ice oozed though to actually give Dracula a momentary chill which he tried to just dismiss as just his imagination.

"I'm glad I didn't bite you," he repeated, "As hot as things got, I had to be careful, although I…"

"Wait," she said hard, "You tried to bite me?"

He hesitated for a brief moment as his mind raced, but it was long enough as Elona gaped in growing disgust as she nearly yelled, "Oh, my God! You tried to bite me! You tried to change me into a Vampire! Why?!"

"No," he insisted louder than he wanted, "Just numb you to the pain so I could…"

"What do you mean 'numb'?" she demanded with a chilling tone, but the answer came to her half way through the question as her feeling of disgust turned into revulsion as she just shuddered and nearly yelled, "Oh, shit! You hypnotized me and tried to turn me into a Vampire! Because you still think I'm Martha?!"

"No!" he said harder than he wanted to, as frustration welled within him, "It wasn't like that, I was only…I only want to…Look, it doesn't matter now because I almost did something I promised I wouldn't do, and I would've regretted it for eternity."

He reached out to touch her hand in an attempt to calm her down and reassure her, but Elona just stood up and backed away from him a sudden repulsion as she shouted, "OH MY GOD! I can't believe this! I thought you different!"

Her shouting was so loud, it echoed throughout the Great Hall to make everyone stop and stare at the scene before them and nearly make everything come to a standstill.

Elona just shuddered into herself as old memories and pain rolled upon her like a tsunami, it was as though a wall just blew up and shattered and she finally saw everything for the illusion it all truly was.

Nothing had changed, and she had let herself fall into the same toxic cycle she let herself fall into with her last ex.

"I can't believe this!" she shouted in a growing anger, self disgust and loathing as she just welled up and released years worth of pain, "I should've known better! No matter what the continent, no matter what the… _species_! Men are men, and only have one thing on their perverted brains!"

"Elona," Dracula tried to reason with her, but she just backed away, picked up her cider and threw it at his face to soak him in apple cider, and yanked the choker off of her neck and through it at him hard.

The next thing he knew, Elona was running towards the large doors in tears and all he could do was watch with some confusion and a blank look on his face.

The watching crowd just began to quietly mutter as Quasimodo smirked darkly to himself, for though he couldn't see what had just passed, he knew what it entailed and quietly and discreetly allowed himself to leave.

Dracula just stood frozen in place for the longest few seconds, wondering what just happened and how it came to this. He finally noticed the entire Great Hall staring at him, looks of concern to confusion colored most of everyone's faces while some intermixed with looks of disappointment and disapproval.

He finally looked at his family and their sad looks told him clearly what he needed to do now; go after Elona and talk to her.

As he was about to leave, a shining Armor Guard clanked up to him rapidly to report with urgency, "Sir, Madam Elona has left the hotel, and has headed for the Haunted Forest."

"What?!" he yelled, and the next moment was gone in a flash and billow of indigo mist, flying out the front revolving door so fast like a bat out of hell to make it spin in a blur on it axis.

Worry and panic grew within him, for she could get into terrible danger and get killed out there, or worse, freeze to death as it had snowed heavily in recent days.

He just knew he had to find her, and quickly.

* * *

Elona became so distraught she didn't pay attention nor did she really where she had run to. She just knew she had to get out of that place and away from _him_.

Old pains surged through her as she scolded herself and questioned how she let this happen and how could she even have let it get this far.

She just ran deeper into the snow covered and fogged forest in the dark blue black night, crying a storm of tears like they were a deluge to gradually become cold drops upon her cheeks.

She finally showed down enough to calm down with some small sniffles and take a look at her surroundings. It took her some moments to realize she didn't know where she was, as well as how cold it truly was as she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered as she panted out puffs of cold breath.

As moments passed, it took her a bit longer to realize she didn't know where she was or what direction to go. She just walked in a random direction for a minute, thinking if she went far enough she might find a road and she could follow it into town.

She walked straight for a seemingly long time, once or twice she thought she heard movement, like rustling, or saw a faint shadow cloaked in the heavy mist to set her on edge and her heart pound.

Maybe it was just a wild animal, yet this was enough to finally push her over the edge and admit a frightening thought to herself; she was lost.

Her thoughts now became ones of fear and sudden loneliness as she mentally kicked herself for being so brash and stupid, cold fear now making its way to her soul to pale next to the physical chill around her.

Elona looked around herself again, her surroundings dark and ominous, cloaking any clue of where she could go or even what to do as she knew she needed to get out of the cold before she caught hypothermia.

She was on the verge of panic when a familiar short and round silhouette appeared right in front of her all of a sudden to make her give a short yelp of fright.

"Why, _Mademoiselle_ ," Quasimodo said with pseudo charm and concern, "Whatever are you doing out here all alone in ze dark forest? You'll surely catch your death of cold."

She just wept for a moment as she said, with a broken voice, "You were right, Quasimodo, he can't change his fangs. He just wanted to use me, try to make me into Martha or nearly rape me because he could. How did I ever believe he really loved me?"

Her tears flowed heavily, but Quasimodo just smirked as he said, "Oh, Mademoiselle, I only said a Vampire can't change his fangs, I never said he didn't love you."

This just confused Elona as she looked at him, but then felt a chill colder than the air around her as she saw Quasimodo sneer amusedly and evilly a her as he said, "But you proved my point even more; humans and monsters shouldn't be coexisting together."

She took a half step back as his sneer darkened, instinct shouted at her to run, it didn't matter where to; Just Run!

Elona turned and began to dash away, but only got a few steps away as another familiar and even more frightening figure suddenly landed from somewhere above right in front of her as he gave an evil cackle; Bela.

She gave a cry and backed away at his sudden appearance, in the process tripping over her own feet and falling to the cold ground with a thump. Somehow she was able to pick herself up quickly despite her legs getting entangled in her dress, and backed away only a few more steps when two more familiar Bat Demons appeared from out of nowhere cackling at her.

"Remember us, human?" one of them, Jiangshi, mocked, laughing evilly as he took a deadly swipe at her with his lethal claws, which she narrowly dodged.

She stumbled back to find herself in Bela's grasp as he held her arms tightly enough she'll have bruises soon, and he just threw her to Carridine, then he to Jiangshi and he back to Bela, throwing her around like this several times like a deranged game of hot potato.

After a long dizzying minute of this, Elona somehow gathered her wits enough to make a fist and punch one of the Bat Demons on the jaw, which just surprised and annoyed him rather than hurt him as the Demon rubbed at his jaw. For Elona, it will make her knuckles ache for days.

She then managed to find an opening and took her chance to run. She made her way around some trees, but Bela and his friends weren't too far behind as they flew between the trees with defying supernatural grace to quickly overtake her and Carridine took a swipe at her to rip a sleeve.

Bela was right behind her, smirking and salivating as he saw his chance. Elona stumbled back again by a couple of steps from Carridine as Bela prepared and curved his claws for a deadly attack.

Trying to keep her distance from Carridine, Elona became momentarily unaware of Bela as she left her back open to him. The next thing she knew, Bela slashed at her back so fast it was preternatural and beyond superhuman, to then leave three long and deep gashes in her back and make her give a bloodcurdling scream.

Bela laughed evilly as she dropped to her knees, feeling incredibly weak all of a sudden. As she tried to fight off the growing grogginess, Quasimodo once more walked into her line of view to look her in the eye as he smirked again to say smugly,

"It's nothing personal, _Mademoiselle_ , and like I said, you proved my point. And you proved to be his greatest weakness; not sunlight, not a wooden stake, not garlic, you. And he yours."

Elona just gave a weak exhale of breath as she finally fell to the ground upon her back, moaning quietly.

"Well, boys, whose ready for a snack before the main course?" Bela asked with a maniacal smile, Carridine and Jiangshi laughed, and licked and smacked their lips in concurrence in preparation for their first bite in a long time.

"No," Quasimodo snapped, making them stop and glare in annoyance at him for interrupting their meal, "If Dracula comes looking for her, and I'm certain he will, I want him to see her like zis, know what his foolishness over humans has cost him."

The Bat Cronies gave disappointed groans and shrugs, but Bela just shrugged as he said dismissively, "We should give my venom a couple hours to take effect anyway, it'll then bring it to the peak of flavor."

The Bat Cronies licked and smacked their lips again, drooling at the very thought of what Elona may taste like at the right time, all four of them disappearing deeper into the cold mist to leave behind their weakened prey, and sharing an evil laugh.

In Elona's last moments of consciousness a few fleeting thoughts passed through her mind, mostly her biggest regrets. Never seeing her family again to tell them she loved them; never completing her trip across Europe; but most of all her final thoughts were on Dracula, regretting how stupid she had been just a few minutes ago and truly wishing with all her heart he was there to be with her.

A final tear fell from her eye as she regretted never getting the chance to see him one final time as she thought she heard his voice call her name on a distant gust of wind.


	29. The Darkness Within

The Darkness Within

He didn't understand how this could've happened, everything was going so perfectly at the Christmas party and all of a sudden she just ran off in tears out to the Haunted Forest, of all places.

Dracula would have given her time to calm down, but when the Armor Guard reported to him where Elona had gone an overwhelming instinct told him to go after her before she got hurt, and he feared he might be too late as his acute hearing heard her scream. It made his heart drop and his blood run cold as he set out to search for her.

Zooming out the revolving door as indigo mist and taking bat form, he flew as rapidly as his supernatural speed allowed him to across the long bridge and into the snowy and heavily misted forest.

"Elona!" he cried out, looking all around his surrounds as his Vampire Far Sight searched hither and yon to find his runaway love, but so far only saw bare skeletal trees, snow and mist, all the while desperately calling her name.

"Elona, where are you?! Whatever I said, I'm sorry! Elona!"

He continued to call her name; worry grew within Dracula more and more as his Far Sight searched the cold ominous forest until he finally spotted her silhouette among the mist, laying as still and unmoving as the tree roots upon the snow covered ground.

"No! No, no, no," he cried as he suddenly resumed his human form in a puff of indigo mist.

He fell to his knees by her side as he gingerly gathered her into his arms to gently cradle her unmoving form, her body was still warm enough even he could feel it yet he still felt the warmth and life fading from her body.

"Elona! Elona, can you hear me?!" he pleaded as panic nearly overcame him.

She remained unmoving and unresponsive to him as he gently shook her limp form to coax some response from her but it was to no avail as his eyes began to glass over as he cradled her closer to his own cool body to nuzzle his face deep into hers, his hand cradling her back then felt something slick and wet.

Something far too familiar.

He looked up to slowly bring his hand into view as his breath caught in his throat to stare at the deep crimson blood staining his hand; old suppressed instincts threatened to resurface within him but he mentally pushed them away.

With his enhanced sense of smell, Dracula took a whiff of his fallen love's blood, and indeed it smelled wrong, off somehow, no doubt the condition she poured her soul out to him about. But something else smelled wrong with it, something familiar yet sinister.

"Venom," he breathed.

In his centuries of existence he knew all too well of different Vampiric abilities, especially the differences between those like himself, such as members of his family, and the overrated dimwits in service to his father.

His face twisted in a sneer as his teeth grit hard as he whispered with a disgusted and glacier cold tone, "Bela."

He'd always found Vlad's minions, especially their now humiliated leader, to be nothing but embarrassments in their very existence to monster kind hardly worth anyone's attention which just added to his amused disgust with them. But now that insignificant overlooked disgust with Vlad's minions had now turned into a growing burning hatred, a kind of hatred he hadn't felt in decades, not since _that_ night.

Only a moment had passed as he breathed out the vile creature's name, for as though by some mystical summoning, Dracula then heard a pair of maniacal laughs and cackles as he finally saw two familiar inhuman figures emerge from the mist and shadows, Bela and Quasimodo.

"You!" Dracula spat out as he saw the former leader of the Cronies and his former head chef approach him yet his growing disgust and loathing turned to confusion as he said, "Quasimodo, what's the meaning of this? Why is the overgrown chew toy with you again?"

Bela gave a dirty glare for the insult, but Quasimodo just gave a low evil cackle as he looked at Dracula with an evil smirk to tell him with smug venom in his voice, "Ze meaning of zis, _Monsieur_ Dracula, is simple le revenge."

Dracula could only be silent with shock as he continued to cradle an unconscious Elona.

Bela smirked as he said in a snarling voice with ecstatic malice, "I now see revenge as just a perk. Once this damn 'you can't go wherever you want' curse if lifted, I'm gonna show you and that traitorous Vlad what it means to be a real monster, starting with destroying that stupid human infested hotel!"

This made Quasimodo stare up at Bela angrily as he scolded the bigger monster, "You will do no such zing, we agreed ze hotel is mine!"

"I don't remember that!" Bela said with clear dismissive disinterest, "Whatever you thought you were getting out this pathetic team up, I never really cared!"

Quasimodo swore in arcane French as he yelled in growing anger, "You miserable brainless excuse for a flying rat, you knew perfectly well I wanted ze hotel! I want to return it to its former glory as a sanctuary for monsters only as its rightful manager, and you won't lay a claw on her!"

Bela just rolled his eyes as he snapped back, "Oh puh-lease, like we need a place to hide from the world like cowards. That's all that joke of a place it is, a place for cowards and my crew's gonna wipe it from the face of the earth! Monsters shouldn't have to hide from the world, we _conquer_ it!"

"You or any of your miscreant brutes try to lay on a damn claw on my beautiful hotel; I'll make your teeth rot so good you'll need to suckle blood through a woman's teat!" Quasimodo challenged in anger.

"Ha, ha, ha, I'd like to see you even try it, short stake!" Bela shot back in amusement.

"I will, 'cause after years of hard laboring slavery, I'm stronger zan I look, and I'll pound your hideous face into ze ground!"

The two shaky allies' arguing had become inaudible to Dracula, completely shut out from his own mind, as did the rest of the world around him. Everything just faded away as he gently laid Elona onto the soft snow and stared at his own blood stained hands, the blood a vibrant crimson against his pale skin in the dark backdrop.

It has happened again, like a vicious circle fated to plague and curse his semi-immortal life. Love, a Zing comes into his life like a whirlwind and brightens his mostly lonely and drab gothic world as a beacon in the lonely night. But then fate conspires against him and it's taken all away, lost in one seemingly fell swoop.

Memories of Martha's death threatened to resurface and haunt him once again, as Dracula could all too clearly see her dead body in pools of blood like Elona is now.

A moment stretched into eternity, but a moment was all it took.

What no one knew, what no one but Vlad could truly understand was while Dracula had feelings like anyone else, allowing himself to feel emotions such as happiness, joy, even love, he always had to have a great disciplined control over his more destructive emotion, especially his anger.

While he expressed it with an occasional glowing red eyed roar, he maintained enough control to never allow himself to give into rage. A rage he hadn't felt for some centuries now, and never wanted to feel again.

But it only took this moment for it to snap, a moment for centuries of discipline and self control to built up higher than China's Great Wall to come crumbling down like brittle glass; for a mighty dam to finally crack and break to release the waters it held back for so long to cascade forth and release the deluge; to finally awaken the centuries long dormant volcano and unleash it's fiery fury.

Those occasional roars didn't even scratch the surface.

His stare became an angered scowl as he squeezed his eyes shut tightly and clenched his sharp jaw, his hands slowly became fists as Elona's blood stains evaporated into nothingness in thick wisps of indigo mist from his hands.

His entire countenance became still and ice cold as something dark, sinister, and nightmarish welled up with him, something long suppressed and beyond eager to resurface, something predatory and dangerous.

"Bring it on, pipsqueak!" Bela challenged with a smirk as he leaned down and protruded his chin out enough for Quasimodo to punch him, not that he expected anything so hard.

"Oh, I will!" Quasimodo sneered happily, "Because when I'm done with you, being the were-brats' chew toy will be happy nostalgia in comparison for you!"

"You're height must show how much brains you gots, because it just shows how little you got!" Bela just further mocked, "And I'm through with the _small_ talk, Ha, ha, haaah!"

"SILENCE!"

That one word, though spoken as a whisper, may as well have been thunder as Dracula's voice had become a bit deeper, more primal, and echoed otherworldliness.

It alone made Bela and Quasimodo cease their arguing and stared at the infamous Count with confusion, awe, and a bit of fear.

It was as though a crack of thunder had boomed from somewhere so close, yet it was felt more on an ethereal level rather than physical and somewhere from deep within the earth to make even the other monsters be weary of the Prince of Darkness as dark violet and darker indigo and even black mist surrounded his figure as he spoke slowly with a cold anger in his now preternatural voice,

"You have just made your last fatal mistake."

Emotions raged within him, churning at his guts and welled up hotness within his chest. His thoughts became a haze as only one thing implanted itself upon his mind; Rage. And Hunger. Hunger for vengeance. For justice. For Martha. For Elona.

His entire figure became enveloped in the dark mist of magic, softly but sinisterly wisping and billowing about his kneeled figure enough so his long elegant black cape and the mist had seemingly become one and the same. Yet the unconscious Elona remained untouched.

His fists snapped open as his nails grew into long deadly talons to nearly rival Bela's own; his mouth opened as he gave off a snarling growl as his already formidable fangs grew to twice their length as his face became sunken in and skull like and paled more to a ghostly white; his eyes then snapped open, revealed to be the glow of the deepest blood red crimson with no whites, no irises, and no pupils were visible, his eyes now only glowed as two fiery pits of the Hellish underworld.

Bela and Quasimodo now witnessed before them only the beginning; a mere sampling of why Dracula is called the Prince of Darkness.

The now changed Dracula slowly rose, his long misted cape billowing sinisterly and ominously behind him as though living shadows. Quasimodo began to whimper and mumble a bit incoherently with a growing fear as he witnessed his boss's transformation, a fear that seemed to invade his mind and burrow its way into his soul as though a glacier cold intangible force from the ether to overpower and takeover his entire consciousness to only know fear, as though to be eternally hunted and devoured at any moment.

Meanwhile, Bela, while also in awe, only saw Dracula as finally offering a worthy challenge he had been denied for some years now. He gave out a beastly roar to call to his two other compatriots, giving a look to Carridine and he knew what to do.

Carridine gave his own equally beastly roar to summon his followers, slumbering deep within Vlad's cave. The roar echoed far into the night to make various glowing red eyes open to the summon; moments later the swarm of Bat Cronies heeded the call, wasting no time in flying out into the night.

Beastly shrieks echoed throughout the forest as dozens more Bat Cronies flew to the roaring call, many laughed maniacally and evilly as they finally got the chance for action and destructive violent fun they had been denied for months upon months.

Some of the gang landed with hard thumps into the ground between the three Bat Cronies and their hunchbacked ally, and the red eyed shadow misted Dracula. This made Quasimodo smirk evilly at how the tables had turned in their favor.

But he couldn't help but feel duped as he snarled at Bela with a shaky but ice cold tone, "You said this was nothing to worry about! That doesn't look like nothing to me!"

"Obviously you don't know nothing about us Vampires," Bela said arrogantly, "I didn't say it was 'nothin'', I just said don't worry about it. But you're so dumb, you don't see I bent the truth a little."

Quasimodo just growled in frustration at this as Bela ordered with over enthusiasm in a shout, "Destroy him, boys!"

For a moment Carridine glared at Bela for daring to try and usurp his leadership, but he let it go for now as he and the others gave vicious wild roars to launch into the air at the misted shadow of their intended target, claws and fangs bared, ready for the kill.

But it proved futile as one Bat Crony tried to ensnare Dracula, but merely past through him as though he were nothing but thin air, leaving him with a look of confusion to stare back at the shadowed Dracula who returned with a soul shattering look of hatred.

Quasimodo's face quickly dropped to again have a look of dreaded fear, yet Bela just dismissed his confusion as he gave another snarl and became determined not to be stopped from his need for destruction and 'monstrous' fun.

One by one members of the Bat Crony crew continued to try and attack Dracula and do him harm, but it was all for naught as they merely passed through his misted shadow form.

All this did was aggrivate and further enrage Dracula.

From his own point of view time seemed to slow, and the entire world became akin to the view of a heat reading camera with the surrounding land of snow covered trees and ground in hues of deep blues and greens while the warmer heat radiated in deep blood reds, oranges and yellows from the bodies of living creatures, glowing in his sight like beacons of which he saw as clearly and sharply as pure crystal glass the patterns of individual blood veins and arteries as the life giving blood flowed through their bodies, while even his acute enhanced hearing heard loud and clear like thunderous war drums the heart beats of the living creatures around him.

It all beaconed him, stirred in him the long denied instincts now resurfaced to become all consuming one of life's most ancient creations. Now, not only must he protect his mate, he must satiate his Hunger as it demanded of him.

How he now undeniably craved the power of the life giving nectar of all living creatures.

As another Bat Crony tried to attack the undisputed Lord of the Undead, with astonishing speed Dracula grabbed the Crony by his thick neck, making him choke hard, and held it with even more incredible strength. He then stared at him straight in the eye in with his own sinisterly glowing red ones as he easily took over the Crony's mind and penetrated deep into his primitive psyche to make him more submissive.

Dracula then opened his mouth wide, as did the Crony like a mirror image, as a pale ethereal blue mist emanated from deep within the Crony's throat and into Dracula's open mouth.

As the ethereal mist vanished into Dracula's mouth, there then came the sudden sound of a cracking neck as Dracula squeezed on the Crony's neck harder to then ram his body into the soft snow covered ground hard enough to make the earth shake and leave a deep dent in the earth twice the size of the Crony's body. He then suddenly set to sinking his long deadly fangs into the creature's neck and within seconds was drained of every drop of blood, the Crony now nothing but an empty husk with an emptier gaze from lifeless staring eyes with a pale gray tint to them now.

Just as he once threatened to kill Johnny, the Crony's body had been sucked of blood to almost be a deflated whoopee cushion.

For a long moment, Bela, Quasimodo, and all the other Bat Cronies could only stared on in shocked confusion, but this only lasted a moment as more mustered up the courage to attack Dracula, but the same thing only happened to another attacking Bat Crony, and then another, and another.

Finally realizing their attacks were in vain, some of the Bat Cronies fled into the misted forest, making Bela shout at them,

"Come back here, you cowards! He's just one guy, it took his entire stupid hotel to defeat us! C'mon, get back here and destroy him!"

Dracula then gave a frightful wild roar in defiance and triumph to the sky, his claws bared and black misted figure encircling Elona as though a protective blanket, having downed a few of his monstrous victims and drank their blood. For with every ounce he fed from, he became stronger, more powerful.

Finally realizing his ally's gang was outmatched, fear grew stronger within Quasimodo to make him realize he now had no other choice; he ran in the opposite direction from Dracula, deeper into the forest.

Bela finally noticed this as he growled irately, "Oh no, you don't, get back here, you little runt!"

He set to chasing his pathetic ally, though Quasimodo was still very quick and nimble to stay ahead of Bela. All Quasimodo knew in that moment was he needed to get away from the now feral Vampire.

Dracula gave a dark smile as he watched the prey scattered about him, a new hunt had finally begun.

Part of him dared not to leave his mate unprotected, but the night beaconed to him, called to him to seek out prey and quench his renewed bloodlust, satiate his Hunger.

He flew as mist in a random direction as he fully embraced what he had denied himself for so long.

At last he was free.

* * *

Back at the hotel, the lively and warm party continued without any awareness of what had just happened to their now absent host.

Mavis and Johnny laughed at a rather hilarious joke Pedro had told them, though it had taken Johnny a second longer to understand what it meant.

"Ha, ha, ha," Johnny laughed, "Pedro, dude, you remind me of a friend back in Santa Cruz, he always told the funniest awkward jokes."

"Thanks, man," Pedro said with a knuckle bump to Johnny, "Yo, seriously, how'd Mav land the coolest human in the entire freakin' world?"

"You really want to hear the story again, P?" Johnny said.

"We all do," Hank concurred with a crooked smile.

Johnny was about to tell Mavis's friends the story of how they met again but when he looked at his lovely wife she had a rather odd look on her face, like she was suddenly worried about something and it chilled both of them to the marrow.

Not too far from them Dennis was playing with Winnie at one of the game tables when he too got the same worried look upon his young cherub face and just stopped playing, making Winnie ask if he was okay.

Vlad chatted with some human townspeople, among who was Dr. Simon, as he regaled them with stories of Dracula as a kid as he drank some blood red cider. They laughed as he shared another story of a young Dracula and was about to take another sip of his cider when he just froze as he sensed something wasn't right as his psychic senses just went on high alert, becoming so aroused no spoken words were able to truly bring understanding to a non-supernatural.

"Oh, no," he breathed out as he dropped his glass and it shattered with a noise easily overlooked by a crowded Great Hall full of reverberating echoes, but enough to worry the small group he had been talking with.

"Your Grace, your drink!" Dr. Simon gasped, "I'll get you another one."

But Vlad didn't listen as not a moment had passed when his fears were confirmed.

"Mavis, what's wrong?" Johnny asked, and was about to make a joke about her seeing a ghost, but not a half moment passed when he too seemed to sense something was really, really wrong.

At the game table, Winnie finally understood why her Zing had stopped playing at the same time her own parents and hundreds of werepup siblings heard a spine chilling roar from the air outside the hotel.

All this happened mere seconds before mere human ears heard the otherworldly roar which carried so strongly upon the winds it made the entire party come to freezing stand still to even make the zombie orchestra stop playing and chill them to their rotting bones. A few silent but confused seconds passed as the entire crowd stopped, wondering what they had just heard and all somehow sensing something wasn't quite right.

A rather long pregnant second passed as murmurs of confusion finally began to reverberate throughout the Great Hall, snapping Mavis and Johnny back to reality as they saw Vlad headed for the door.

"Guys, I need you to stay here, and keep the party going," Mavis told her friends, making them give looks of confusion.

"Why, Mavis?" Hank asked, "What going on? Does it have to do with that weird noise?"

"I can't say, but please, trust me, keep everyone here and keep the party going," Mavis said with a serious tone, yet pleaded with her friends, "Something suddenly doesn't feel right."

"You got it, Mavis," Wendy said with a salute.

She, Johnny, and Dennis followed Vlad and were soon joined by the Drac Pack, their lady friends and even the pack of werepups to all gather together in the lobby.

"What's going on?" Frank now asked, "Why is everybody in the lobby? And where's Drac?"

"He went to find Elona," Johnny explained, "All I know is she got upset about something and ran out, then I overheard one of the security Armor Guards tell him she ran into the spooky forest; so they're probably still out there."

"Something's wrong with Drac," Vlad said with a serious stone hard tone, "I can sense it, and it won't be good for anybody, human or monster. We need to find them fast before Drac kills somebody."

"What do you mean, Grandpa?" Mavis asked with confusion and growing worry.

"No time to explain, you, me, and Denisovich have to search from their air, while the rest of you look from the ground."

"Okay, guys, you heard Vlad," Johnny said with initiative, "We'll go through the forest in teams, me, Frank, and Griffin, while Wayne goes with Murray."

"I don't know, Johnny," Wayne said with some doubt, "My sniffer isn't so great after so much…"

"Okay, Wayne, I'd hate to get the pups involved, but we'll need all the help we can get."

Wayne gave a nod as he said, "They won't let you down, and I know just the pup to lead the way."

Winnie was already front and center as Mavis, Vlad, and Dennis became bats and flew out the door as the others followed close behind, Eunice, Carol, and Nefi followed while Wayne told Wanda to stay behind due to her latest pregnancy.

As the Vampire family flew through the air, worry lines deepened Vlad's elderly face, making Mavis and Dennis worry even more as well.

On the ground, the Drac Pack and the ladies split away only a short ways from each other as they searched the forest for any sign of Dracula or Elona.

Wayne told his pups to sniff out any sign of their friends and to focus only on those scents. Winnie was ahead as she picked up a familiar female human scent, giving a worried whine as she called out to everyone to follow her as she sniffed out for Elona.

"She's here somewhere," Winnie said, "But I think something is wrong. Mr. Ugly and that mean Quasimodo were here, too."

"That can't be good," Griffin said.

Winnie continued to sniff as everyone looked around the area, until Frank finally called out, "Over here, I found her! She doesn't look good."

Frank gently gathered Elona into his large hands as everyone else gathered around, Johnny looked her over and became fearful as he saw how pale she had become. He felt a pulse, but it was weak and her body temperature was cooler than normal.

They also all saw the small pool of blood staining the white snow as Frank moved his hand enough to see more blood staining it.

Johnny felt his heart just drop as he said with a dead serious and urgent tone, "Get her back to the hotel as quickly as possible, she needs a doctor!"

They started to head back for the hotel when Murray saw something that was all sorts of wrong.

"Uh, guys," Murray spoke up rather softly with apprehension, "Is that what I think it is?"

The Drac Pack and the ladies gathered closer to a large form laying deathly still near where Elona was found, and it was the unmistakable body of a now dead Bat Crony.

"He's dead," Griffin said quickly with shock as realization set in as he examined the body more closely, "He's completely drained. What happened here?"

"There's another one," Murray pointed to another too far away.

"I see more over there," Eunice said as she pointed to at least three more dead and drained Bat Cronies, "This is too freaky, what the hell happened here? Did Drac do this?"

"Let's get back to the hotel," Johnny ordered, feeling the urgency of the situation even more now, "Let's hope Mavis and the others find him. I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

Wayne then noticed something that made his heart just drop.

"Wait, where's Winnie?" he demanded, fatherly protective instincts surged up within him.

Looking around, no one saw her and they called for her with new worry and fear.

Having found Miss Elona, Winnie then sniffed another familiar scent and followed it, but something about it seemed weird, in a really wrong way. It was Uncle Drac's scent, of that she was sure but it smelled different somehow as well, like he was made of air or was something…bad, or scary and not in the good way she knew.

She sniffed the air and ground around her as she walked on all fours, certain she was close to finding Uncle Drac.

She then caught sight of something strange as she slowed her pace to investigate closer. It was a large dead deer, and it was fresh, not even dead a few minutes.

Winnie got up to walk on her hind legs as she looked more closely at the deer and her keen sight couldn't help but notice two still bleeding holes on the deer's neck.

She gave a soft breath as she tried to not think about what that might mean.

Sniffing the air some more she then saw another freshly dead animal, a goat with large spiraling horns, and upon closer inspection also had two holes in its neck and had been completely drained of blood.

As Winnie cautiously followed the short path of dead and drained prey animals, she began to breathe heavily as her misted breath thickened as the chilled air became colder around her enough for her to shiver beneath her thick fur.

She then suddenly heard what seemed to be a faint but hard crash and then a biting crunch of flesh as a bloodcurdling scream gargled from some poor victim, making her momentarily flinch.

Winnie continued on her path as she then sighted through the trees movement of two strange shadows, one seemed covered or made from dark mists. She slowly approached them, the misted figure seemed to make squeamish slurping and sucking sounds as though feeding off of the other larger shadowed figure.

She just watched with some grossed out fascination as she slowly approached the figure, her nose telling her clearly who it was yet she just couldn't believe it. He seemed to not notice her or chose to ignore her, until she unintentionally stepped on a rock hidden by the snow that stubbed her toe and made her give a small pained cry.

This made the misted figure stop feeding to give a dangerous growl at this sudden interruption, which allowed Winnie to see the familiar shape of a high collar and slicked back midnight black hair as he kneeled over a now unmoving giant bat creature.

She took another step closer and the figure just suddenly turned his face to face a shocked Winnie, a monstrous ghostly white face, sunken in and skull like to enhance sharp features of a familiar but nearly unrecognizable face.

He glared dangerously at her with glowing fiery blood red eyes as he gave a low snarl with blood stained lips to reveal fleshly stained teeth and long deadly fangs as fresh blood drooled from his mouth while he held up a ghostly white and gnarled hand to show long deadly sharp claws also covered in blood.

"U…Uncle Drac?" Winnie breathed low, uncertain it was truly him she was seeing.

He just gave a low growl as he glared at her with a clear burning anger, not realizing from his point of view he saw her body heat as clear as day as he listened to the hard beating of her heart as it sped up with a growing fear; and it just enticed him even more.

As Winnie just stared at her changed uncle, unexpectedly he changed before her eyes into a dark indigo and black living mist with the same glowing red eyes to momentarily billow away from the Bat Crony's fresh corpse to slither to and fro with a foreboding grace like a snake of fog and towards her. Winnie took some steps back as cold fear grew within her, the very mists and snow of the forest seemed to increase all around the both of them.

If this was really Uncle Drac, why was he doing this? What was happening to him?

She backed away a bit more as he got closer, steadily the mist rose to tower over her and partially reform into Dracula as he seemed prepared for something unfriendly towards the young werewolf.

Winnie suddenly tripped as she began to whimper with fear, her heart pounding in her chest as his misted cape flared like a giant cobra hood and he suddenly gave off a bone chilling roar at her.

"RAAARRGH!"

"AAAAAAH!" Winnie screamed, echoing throughout the forest to get the attention of everyone else, even in the sky.

Winnie finally got back onto all fours and ran like her life depended on it, and in this case it truly did.

Yes, young one, run. Run as fast as you can for it only entices him more, makes him thirst for fresher untainted blood of the young, to add to his power and become stronger.

He gave a low sinister laugh as he watched her run, allowing a ten second head start so as to revel in this brief but invigorating thrill of the hunt.

Winnie ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, zigzagging through the trees as she could hear and smell her now scary Uncle Dracula behind her. This wasn't some fun game, it was real danger and it confused her as to why he was doing this.

He was her Daddy's best friend and her Zing's Papa, he was always so nice and fun to be around. What happened to make him so scary and mean now? Was it because Miss Elona was hurt?

She barely had a moment to really think about this as she just tried to find a place to hide, or even find her Daddy and the others. She took a brief look behind herself to see Dracula flying through the air as mist, easily going around or even through the trees like they were nothing, chasing her down with a honed in focus like she was to be his next meal.

She finally saw a big enough tree she tried to hide behind as she panted and heaved so hard her chest hurt and she needed to catch her breath and hoped it was enough to evade the feral Dracula. She could smell and almost hear him get closer to her, so tried to quietly move around the big tree to keep out of sight as she sensed him slow and nearly stop close to where she hide. She heard him actually smell the air as though trying to detect her scent upon the air as he gave a low growl.

Moving further behind the tree she slowly peeked around to see his misted form drift by looking for her. For a moment he almost saw her as she hid again, but he showed no sign he saw her as he finally drifted past with a nearly quiet sigh of air and blended with the air and shadows of the snow covered forest.

Winnie backed away in the opposite direction as she tried to catch her breath, her heart still pounding hard in her chest as she tried to decide where to go now or how to get back safely to the hotel, unaware of small billows of mist behind her began to swirl up from the ground and gradually reform into a familiar figure.

Sensing something dangerous right behind her, she slowly turned to see Dracula from the dark mists practically feet from her, to then growl dangerously at her with malicious intent.

"AAAHH! No, no!" she screamed as she tried to back away from him again as he drifted closer to her, readying to feed on her as she pleaded, "Uncle Drac, please, don't! It's me, Winnie! Don't you remember?! Please, please, don't hurt me!"

She found herself trapped as her back hit the big tree again, unable to escape as the snarling Dracula cornered her and his face was inches from hers. She panted hard as she saw him look ready to bite her like he did those big uglies, the fear in her eyes added to his power as he psychically fed from it.

But for some reason, he just stopped and stared at her straight in the eyes, as though something changed in him and he truly recognized her, sensing a familiarity from her through her fear.

"Winnie," he nearly whispered slowly with an otherworldly voice, like something ominous upon the air as the tip of a sharp talon lightly stroked her above an eye.

"Yeah," Winnie squeaked, "It's me, Winnie. Remember?"

He seemed to back off a bit when there came a beastly roar from above to grab Dracula's attention; another Bat Crony flew right at him challengingly and Dracula easily caught him by the shoulders as they briefly wrestled, each testing each other's strength until Dracula just pinned the Crony on the ground and sank his fangs into the creature's neck to make him gargle out a pained scream, momentarily making pools of blood fly.

Winnie just watched in frozen horror what her uncle just did when a familiar male voice called out with worry, "Winnie!"

Through the trees she saw Johnny, the ladies and the Drac Pack running towards them and she just ran to Wayne as she yelled, "Daddy!"

She was safely in his arms again as she sobbed with some fright into his shoulder, the others briefly watched what was happening to just gape in shock.

"Drac?!" Johnny gasped, "What the hell happened to you?"

Dracula just took a sharp breath as he finished off the Bat Crony and tossed the limp body aside like trash not worth his attention to then stare at Johnny with malice in his glowing red eyes.

A chill ran down Johnny's spine, not liking how his father-in-law now looked at him; not like family, but as his next meal.

Yes, though he grew stronger with each piece of prey he consumed, this kind of prey was what he truly craved above all else: human. He can smell them at the nearby fortress and a village not too far away upon the air, and it called to him like a siren. But, for now that one will be a good start, for he has been denied it for far too long.

He flew right at Johnny in a shot, making him give a brief girlish scream and grabbed Johnny by his jacket as he flew them straight up into the sky above the canopy of the trees, growling at Johnny as he gave off frightened yells.

"Drac!" he cried, "Drac, stop, don't! It's me, Johnny! C'mon, dude, snap out of it!"

Dracula just growled at him with a clear hungry rage, making Johnny whimper as he realized his pal wasn't the friend and fatherly figure he had known for seven years, but the monster of legend.

But then something seemed to change in the enraged Dracula as his eyes squeezed tightly for a moment and he gave a strained groaned. His eyes then opened again to reveal familiar blue ones instead of demonic glowing red ones.

"Johnny?" he questioned with confusion, yet his voice still echoed with otherworldliness.

"Drac?" Johnny breathed, "Drac, what's happening to you? How can I help you?"

"I…" he strained, "I don't…I can't…uggh…" His straining became a growl again as his eyes squeezed shut again to reopen and be red again as he growled out in anger, "They hurt her! I must feed!"

He opened his mouth wide to show his blood stained fangs, making Johnny's eyes go saucer wide as he feared what Dracula was about to do and could even smell the stink of Dracula's breath.

A moment before Dracula could sink his fangs into Johnny's neck, something hit Dracula from the side as she gave a battle cry, making Dracula let go of Johnny long enough for the younger man to hang in the air before gravity took hold and he screamed as he felt his body go heavy for a fall.

"I gotcha, Daddy," a boy's voice called out as Johnny suddenly felt something small grab him by the collar of his jacket and flew him to the ground safely.

"Dad, stop it!" Mavis shouted angrily at her father as she shifted from a bat to her human form in a puff of blue mist as she bodily slammed into him.

Dracula tumbled through the air for some moments before catching himself and growling in aggravation to his own daughter, and she just growled back at him with her own red glowing eyes and seemed on the verge of going feral herself when Vlad appeared and grabbed Mavis to bring her back down to the ground and warned her with a hard tone,

"Don't! Don't give in to it, you won't be able to control it! He's losing himself to it!"

Mavis was about to question what Vlad was talking about when Dracula flew down at them in a shot on the attack, but at the last second something or someone body slammed into him hard and they fell and rolled onto the ground.

It was Wayne and he just shouted at his friend and the godfather of his pups, "Drac, stop it! We're your friends, your family! We don't want to hurt you!"

Dracula just growled loudly at Wayne as he over powered the werewolf and pinned him to ground, but something seemed to awaken in Wayne as his eye pupils just thinned into sharp slits and they seemed to glow a golden-green by the light of the moon.

Wayne gave off a vicious snarl as he wrestled and pushed against Dracula hard enough to get back up onto his feet and the arm wrestled each other for some long seconds.

Wayne then bit down hard onto Dracula's arm, making the Vampire give a cry of surprised pain but became angered enough to punch Wayne hard on the face to make him give a yelp and nearly dislocate his jaw.

This disoriented Wayne enough he didn't have a chance to react when Dracula pinned him to the cold snowy ground again, roaring right into the werewolf's face as he raised a clawed hand to maul Wayne but then he stopped again as something caught Dracula's eye and he gave a surprised or confused look.

Everyone thought they were finally getting through to him when his face twisted with anger and he roared again as he leaped right for Frank, who was still holding an unconscious Elona.

Wayne was able to react again to grab his crazy possessed friend by his cape and keep him from attacking Wayne, but Dracula backhanded Wayne in the face and grabbed him by the waist to toss him hard and send him careening through the air and hit a tree hard enough to crack it and give a pained yelp.

He was atop Frank again as everyone tried to come to the rescue, but with a gesture as he spread his arms out wide Dracula sent a wave of telekinetic dark indigo mist that forcefully pushed everyone back hard and they fell away some meters from where they stood.

Frank gave out cries and yelps of surprise rather than pain as he was literally torn apart; an arm landed here, a leg there, his head landed right into a disoriented and surprised Johnny's grasp as Frank's head said urgently,

"He's got her!"

Everyone looked to see Dracula had Elona limply in his arms now, looking at everyone with a burning scorn as his hissed at them,

"Mine. Mine!"

With a flare of his misted cape, he wrapped himself and her in it like a cocoon and vanished in a billow of violet mist like a ghost on the wind, leaving his friends and family in a state of worry and confusion.

"Where did they go?" asked a worried Mavis, "What'll he do to her? What's wrong with my dad, why is acting like this?"

"Yeah, why is Papa Drac being so mean?" asked a worried and hurt Dennis, both he and his mother gave Vlad demanding looks.

Guilt stung at the eldest Vampire's heart, but he dismissed it for the moment as they had to find Dracula and get Elona medical help quickly.

"No time to explain, we have to find him," Vlad said quickly, "Use your psychic senses to get a fix on him and we'll stop him before he hurts anybody else."

"But I need to know what's going on with my dad," Mavis demanded, but Vlad was already concentrating hard as he shut his eyes tightly and held his temples.

"Whatever's wrong with him, Mavis, we'll help him," Johnny tried to reassure her, "He's still in there, I saw it, but it isn't easy for him to fight it off."

Giving a huff, Mavis did the same as Vlad did but she couldn't sense her dad anywhere, like he didn't want to be found or he just disappeared off of the face of the Earth.

"I can't sense him anywhere," she complained, but Vlad got a serious cold look as he said, "I know where he is, follow me."

He led his family and the rest of the Drac Pack through the forest to where he thought he sensed Dracula had teleported to.

"You guys go on, I'll catch up later," Frank's head called as a hand picked it up and dragged it to a torso with an arm and leg reattached in the wrong places, making him mumble annoyed, "Really, really later."

* * *

Dark violet and indigo mist gracefully billowed and swirled with quiet ethereal whooshing as it reformed into Dracula holding a limp and unconscious Elona.

He hugged her close in a protective embrace, hoping she would awake. He realized he had been foolish to leave his mate unprotected like that, and he needed to leave her some place safe for the time being until he was strong enough to protect her for eternity.

As he gently caressed her pale face with a ghostly white and gnarled taloned hand, he momentarily looked at her vulnerable neck, so tender and soft, as he thought the only way to save her was to bite her, make her like him.

But something kept him from doing it, like he knew it wasn't what she wanted and he would only hurt her if he did, very much like the last time he tried to do it on one he once thought could be his eternal companion.

He gave a cry of sorrow and guilt into the night that echoed throughout the forest, making animals flee and birds fly away into the sky, yet was enough to draw a certain group to its attention and confirm Vlad's suspicions.

Keeping her wrapped in his misted cape, Dracula drifted to and forth throughout the forest as he looked around as fast as he could for a safe place to hide Elona until he could come back for her. He finally found the one place he was certain she should be safe and warm away from danger.

With a hard stomp into the ground the door of the old hidden tunnel to his hotel opened with a creak to allow him entrance to then lay her down gently in a corner. He caressed her cheek one last time as his thoughts finally set on the one whose blood he truly craved, on who he truly wanted revenge on.

The opening to the tunnel closed with a loud creak as he flew through the narrowing gap into the night as dark violet mist on a single minded mission to satisfy his Hunger in one small way before truly giving into his true power.

He could smell that traitorous hunchback's blood not too far away in the Haunted Forest, and he mentally locked onto tracking his intended prey.

From behind some nearby trees and bushes, his family and friends watched with tense patience as he sniffed the air as though in search of something. For a moment, he seemed to glimpse suspiciously towards them, but just evaporated upon the wind.

Vlad pushed the hidden door open again with his foot as everyone gathered into the hidden tunnel's entrance, searched for Elona and found her not too far inside. Vlad gathered her into his arms, and his ancient undead heart dropped at how cold she was becoming even to someone like him.

"It's a good thing the hotel's not too far away now," he said, "she's needs a doctor right now. Dr. Simon can help, I was chatting with him and a few other humans at the party earlier."

"We'll take her," Eunice said as she took her friend into her arms, "And when you find Drac, tell him I'll tear his wings off for what he did to Frankie."

Vlad just gave a raised eyebrow as Nefi summoned a small sandstorm to take her and the girls back to the hotel as quickly as possible to save their human friend.

Vlad led the rest of them through the forest as he, Mavis, and Dennis flew as bats but Mavis wasn't having it anymore as she wanted answers now.

"Grandpa Vlad, I know we have to find my dad, but you have to tell me what the hell is going on with him," she demanded, "and how can we make him stop."

"The Hunger," Vlad said low.

"He's hungry?" Mavis said with some confusion, "but there's plenty to eat at the hotel, and he only ever had blood substitute."

"No, Mavis, _the_ Hunger," Vlad said with a dead seriousness, "Remember how you felt when he attacked Johnny? Now imagine that hundreds times stronger and no way to come out of it because you want more and more. It's what makes us what we are, and the Dracula bloodline is the most powerful of all."

Mavis didn't know what to say, as she began to realize things her father had only vaguely told her about growing up, but she understood he had to be stopped before he hurt himself or someone else.

"How do we stop him?" she asked with conviction.

"As a family."

****Somewhere in the Haunted Forest

Chills went down his hunched spine as Quasimodo tried to find a way through the forest, he had easily leaped and bounded from one tree to another like a deformed monkey, but now he walked steadily as he shivered from the cold and just tried to find shelter so he could figure out what to do next.

It hadn't gone as he had intended, and that traitorous demon had tricked him. Well, for now it didn't matter what Bela's true intentions were and his true colors hadn't been completely lost on Quasimodo, but he did realize he should have known better than to think that destructive brute ever cared about the hotel the way he did.

This was just another setback, he'll figure something out. He just needs to lay low and avoid Dracula for some time, perhaps a few months. His boss may have been a fool about the humans but Quasimodo now realize he was far more powerful and dangerous than even he ever realized.

He let out another deep heavy breath as it misted in the cold air, trying to catch his breath as his body ached from so much leaping and running to escape the now feral Vampire. He didn't know how long or how far he had run, but he knew he was lost but he won't let that stop him.

Perhaps he could lay low in Little Sighisoara for a while, take advantage of the humans' stupidity if the hype of them loving monsters was all it was cracked up to be.

He just needed to get his bearings, figure out what direction to go but then felt the air become colder as he thought he heard a quiet sigh of air.

He looked all around himself but didn't really see anyone or anything until he thought he saw a shadow move through the tree and make him give a frighten gasp.

He then heard a dangerous predatory growl in the darkness, making him look in random directions until he saw a pair of blood red eyes looked right at him with pure hated from between the trees.

He tried to stifle a scream of fright and began to run for his life with thick billows of black and indigo mist spiral and swirl up from the ground to form in an all too familiar figure; Dracula stared down at Quasimodo from an imposing height as his figure from the shoulders down was a cocoon of an elegant black cape to then become mist and shadows as though part of the landscape.

He growled dangerously as she stared at Quasimodo intimidatingly, his voice seemed to echo and reverberate between the trees and sky as he said, "You were warned, and now you will pay."

" _Monsieur_ , please," Quasimodo said with a barely controlled squeak in his voice, "I didn't realize…I didn't know…"

"Shut up," Dracula ordered harshly, and Quasimodo's mouth shut tightly, "I've been too easy on you, Wilson, no more Mr. Nice Vampire."

"But, _Monsieur_ , I beg of you," Quasimodo pleaded fearful, now fully aware of the dangerous trouble he was in as he fell to his knees and beg pathetically, "Master, spare me, I was foolish, I see that now, have mercy."

"Like you did to my precious beloved?" he spat back angrily, "You're an idiot, and for her I now show my True Power."

Quasimodo was momentarily confused by this statement, but didn't like what it implicated.

His fear just grew worse as Dracula wrapped himself fully in his shadowed and misted cape like a black cocoon, cloaking himself fully from site as black mists seemed to be absorbed into him to add to his dark mass as the 'cocoon' seemed to increase in size, getting larger and larger with each passing moment until it blanketed Quasimodo in a shadow and he couldn't even see starlight between the tops of the trees.

Finally, the mass opened but was no longer a cloak but a pair of large bat wings, they opened with a dark grace to reveal Dracula now as a giant ebony black and crimson eyed dragon with fuchsia colored wings. The dragon looked down at Quasimodo with a burning hatred as he growled.

The hunchback just gave a cowardly whimper as the Dracula dragon then gave a fierce and mighty roar.

"RAAAWRRR!"

"AAAAAAAAAHH!" Quasimodo screamed as he tried to run, tripping over his own feet as he did as the dragon tried to grab at him with huge claws, "No! No! Stay away from me!"

He managed to get between the trees and evaded Dracula from a minute as he heard him say in that frightening otherworldly voice,

"You can't hide from me forever, hunchback! I will have your blood! I will have revenge for Elona!"

If that was true, Quasimodo wasn't about to stick around and find out.

For a long minute as Quasimodo ran through the dense forest, he could hear Dracula's footsteps right behind him as trees were crushed and they shook the very earth, but he managed to find an overgrowth of thick roots and took shelter beneath them, hoping he could stay here long enough until Dracula tired or lost interest in his hunt. Perhaps he'll stay there until sunrise, considering how Dracula and the Sun itself didn't mix well.

Dracula sniffed the forest for his prey's scent, and he was near alright, but the forest was too vast and thick even for his Far Sight and X-ray powers, making him roar in frustration as his Hunger gnawed at him for more.

His craving for that little morsel's blood will have to wait, he can smell what he truly craved at the fortress on the other side of the forest, just on the inland lake. Oh, how his bloodlust surged through him, coursed through him to make him the force of nature he truly was and he will have his revenge.

He gave another fierce roar as he spread his great bat like wings to take to the air, creating a powerful air current to send forest debris flying in all directions, becoming a black silhouette against the night sky as three much smaller flying creatures came into view.

Vlad just went wide eyed with shock as he breathed out, "Son, what have you done?"

"Is that…? No way," Mavis gasped in awe, uncertain to accept her own father was the giant dragon they now saw.

"Stay close," Vlad ordered, "But leave this to me now, as he's becoming so dangerous he may not recognize you two."

"But, Grandpa…" Dennis started to say, but Mavis told him,

"Listen to him, Dennis, if we can help Papa Drac we have to trust him."

He just looked unsure but he knew his mother was right, and he just wanted to help his Papa any way he can.

They flew up to the great dragon as he clearly began to hone in on the hotel, making the three little bats speed up to intercept him.

"Drac!" Vlad shouted to get his son's attention, finally flying up to his line of sight to make Dracula give a low rumbling growl of annoyance to have something essentially the size of a fly buzzing around his dragonian face.

So Vlad shifted to his proper form to levitate and shouted at Dracula, "Son! Don't do this! Remember who you are! Remember control!"

But Dracula just swipe at him with a huge claw, making Vlad dodge and evade it at the last second to keep from being hit and he glared at the dragon.

"So, you won't listen to me like this," he said quietly as Dracula flew onwards towards the hotel high above the forest and Vlad, "I never thought I'd have to do this to my own son, but you leave me no choice, Mr. Tough Guy."

Vlad wrapped himself in his own cape like a cocoon as red tinted mist enveloped him and increased in size to then reveal a giant ebony dragon with red wings and wispy white eyebrows, and his eyes remained a normal red instead of glowing a deep demonic light.

He gave a roar to get Dracula's attention, and the other dragon looked back behind a second before Vlad body slammed into him with a hard bang of thunder to make them propel back some dozen or so meters with their momentum before Dracula finally threw his father off of himself.

Vlad caught himself in the air as he flapped his wings to catch an updraft and fly again towards his insanely single minded Hunger possessed son, this time swiping his own claws on Dracula head to get his attention, and really hurt as Dracula gave a pained grunt which then became a snarl as Dracula dared to return the attack upon his own father.

But Vlad evaded him again as he flew slightly higher, folded his wings in as he let himself fall and landed hard on Dracula to then have them both crash hard into the trees, making the very earth shake around them and show how slightly bigger he was in comparison to his son.

"Remember who you are!" Vlad roared at him.

But this just enraged Dracula more as he pushed Vlad off of his back hard enough to make the older dragon tumble back and crush more trees and Dracula leaped onto him to bodily hold him down as he roared,

"You'll pay for that, old man! I'll destroy you!"

For only a microsecond this actually frightened Vlad as he knew his son was capable of it, but it was over in a second as he just swiped at his son's face and it was enough to confuse him and for Vlad to push back against Dracula and bodily hold him down as he again roared at his enraged son,

"Remember what I taught you! Control!"

Dracula just gave a defiant roar, but then looked to his right to see the two remaining bats change into two more familiar faces, and it took him an eternal second to realize who they were, which just confused him further.

He gave a roar of confusion and devastation as he finally allowed himself to remember things, important memories he always cherished, he always held on to for the love of his lost wife and his precious daughter.

Yet as his memories came rolling back to him, his Hunger demanded he just keep feeding and unleash his power upon the world, conquer it and hunt in it as it is the way of things.

Dracula squeezed his eyes shut as he grabbed his draconian head, as though his head hurt and he was struggling from within. Vlad gradually picked himself off of his son as red tinted mist billowed around him and he returned to his normal humanoid form.

Dark indigo and violet mist swirled and billowed around Dracula as he struggled with his psyche, memories of love and family fighting against his ancient supernatural nature, a struggle for his very soul.

He finally grabbed onto those memories; of meeting Martha and getting married, the birth of their first daughter, playing with her as she grew up, meeting Johnny and their evolving friendship, the birth of his grandson, the reconciliation with his father, and finally the meeting of his hew love, Elona.

It was a long and tumultuous inner struggle for him, like there were two powerful forces warring for his very soul and he had moments in and out of his consciousness of knowing and uncertainty of who he truly was.

Finally, as the mist dispersed to finally reveal Dracula in his true form once more, kneeling upon his knees while hunched over tightly into himself as his cape draped over him and spread like a blanket around him upon the ground, there was a thick tenseness about him as his family just watched and looked upon him in concern.

Mavis slowly approached him as she quietly called out, "Dad?"

She slowly reached out to him to reassure him, to know it was truly him again. But as her hand was mere inches from his shoulder, his voice broke through the quiet to say with a quiet tone colder than the snow, "Don't touch me."

Mavis could only draw her hand back and gasp quietly as she heard her father speak, uncertain of how to feel about it.

"Papa Drac?" Dennis timidly said as he came out from behind Mavis.

Dracula barely gave a response as Vlad said, "Son, remember control."

A long silence passed as Dracula was as still as a statue until he finally said with a quiet but still cold tone, "It's still there. I can feel it."

"And it will always be there," Vlad said with fatherly patience, "But you're stronger than it, stronger than you know."

Dracula finally slowly looked up to his family, revealing his mouth still stained with blood he had consumed, as well as his formal Christmas tux was stained with blood.

He gave them a look Mavis couldn't quiet place, but he looked confused as well as gradually realizing what had happened and a great weight of guilt began to pressed upon his shoulders. She could see in his eyes it was like something that wasn't him was still there.

"Elona?" he asked.

"At the hotel," Mavis began to explain, but before she could explain more Dracula vanished in a flash of indigo mist like a shooting star back to the hotel.

Vlad, Mavis, and Dennis were left standing in the quiet night.


	30. Love Bite

Love Bite

Dracula was through the revolving door in a flash as he followed his Far Sight powers to the hospital wing, stopping just short of the door as he saw both Dr. Viperstein and Dr. Simon emerge from the emergency room, neither of them looked hopeful.

"How is she?" he asked in a breath so quickly before the door had fully shut.

The two different doctors looked at each other, waiting for the other to answer until Dr. Simon finally answered, "Stable, but I don't think she'll make it till morning."

"What?" Dracula gasped.

"We've had to warm her up to a normal body temperature as it was dangerously low, we had to give her stitches and bandaged the deep gashes on her back, and she's on morphine for the pain and she needed some rehydration. But unfortunately, we found an invasive toxin in her system I've never seen before and without knowing what it is or its original source; I don't know if an anti-venom can be made in time."

"I've helped a lot of guests at your hotel, sir, and I too know of certain types of monster abilities and even poisons, but this is something I've never seen before and I have to agree with Dr. Simon here, especially if it's in a human now," Dr. Viperstein said with a sullen but professional tone.

Dracula could only be silent as he let all of this sink in.

"I want her taken to her suite," he said.

The doctors looked at each other again in confusion as Dr. Simon tried to reason with Dracula, "Your Grace, what we need is here and we're doing all we can for her and we've made her as comfortable as possible…"

"I said," he interrupted with a lingering icy tone as there came a slight otherworldly echo, "I want her in her suite."

"Of course, Mr. Dracula," said Dr. Viperstein.

Dr. Simon then hesitantly asked, "Uh, your grace, are you okay? You've got a little uh…"

He pointed around his own face which made Dracula give a raised eyebrow until he touched as his own face and wiped away the bloody drool upon his own face and stained his hand.

"Oh, uh…" he mumbled as he gave a bit of an awkward smile, making Dr. Simon give a confused if a bit of an apprehensive look.

"I uh, I had a bit too much at the party, uh…," Dracula explained in a half truth, "I'll think I'll go get cleaned up, and I have a party to get back to."

He was away in a whoosh as the two doctors just looked at each other.

* * *

Dracula was finally able to clean off his face as he found a washcloth from one of the carts used by Housekeeping as he made his way down a hallway.

He then just stopped as he stared at the blood stained crisp white cloth as he felt himself begin to quiver, whether from the after affects of adrenaline, fear, or self-disgust he couldn't be sure as his memories of what he had done tonight were still a bit hazy but were clearing bit by bit. He could also still taste all the blood he had consumed; and it was delicious.

He knew he should return to the party because it was his job and duty to be the host as manager of the hotel, yet he couldn't bring himself to face all those people for fear someone had seen him and put the pieces together of what happened, which wouldn't be too hard considering the advancement of humany technology these days. Besides, his heart just wasn't in it to return to the party.

What he really wanted was to be by Elona's side, be sure she would be okay. But remembering what the doctors had just told him, his heart just dropped more in a growing despair.

Just to put off things for as long as possible, he tossed the towel down a monstrous laundry chute that ate it up with a gulp and decided to return to his chambers to change his tux, but then saw the last people he expected to see at the moment, Vlad and Mavis, who looked at him a bit coldly as she had her arms crossed.

He just froze for a long moment, not knowing what to say or do as the tension could've been cut with a dagger.

Finally, all he could say to his only daughter with true remorse and shame in a soft tone was, "I'm sorry."

Something seemed to soften in Mavis as Dracula saw her eyes glass over with small tears and the next thing he knew she hugged him tightly to which he hugged her back as he gave a soft sigh.

"Grandpa Vlad told me everything," she said with a bit of a tearful choke, "I understand so much now."

Dracula just looked at his father, to which Vlad just nodded.

"There's so much I wanted to tell you," he said sadly, "But ever since you were born I only ever wanted to protect you, especially since your mommy died and I had to keep you safe from my enemies."

"It doesn't matter now," Mavis said with understanding, father and daughter just gave looks no more words were needed now.

Dracula's face then dropped more as he said with reluctance, "I have to get back to the party."

"It's okay, we'll take care of it," Vlad said, "We know what you really want to do."

Dracula gave a small confused look as Vlad told him, "I don't need to read your mind to know that, and you won't need to worry about Bela and his colony for a while, leave them to me."

Dracula gave Vlad a thankful smile, but it turned into a cold dark glaring scowl as he spat out with ice, "Quasimodo."

His hands became fists as the very thought of the traitorous hunchback as dark mist and shadows momentarily permeated around him again, to which Mavis tried to calm him as she said,

"He's still out there, but he isn't a problem right now. I promise you, Dad, we'll deal with him later."

He took a deep breath to calm down, and he gave a nod to Mavis as he said with some of his old sarcasm, "He's so worse than fired right now."

"There's my dad," Mavis said with a bit of a smile, "Go to her, we'll talk later."

Dracula hugged Mavis one last time as Vlad gripped his shoulder with fatherly respect as he then made his way to an elevator to Elona's suite.

He finally made his way down the hallway to the door of her suite, guilt and worry deeply colored his face to nearly make grey shadows beneath his eyes visible enough to see.

He was about to knock when the Shrunken Head said, "Do not disturb. The poor woman's just barely hanging on, I hear, and I don't think visitors are allowed in yet."

"I have to see her," he said with authority mixed with sadness, guilt, and conviction as he gently wracked on the door a few times.

He didn't know who to expect to answer other than it wouldn't be Elona, but he didn't expect and was somehow not too surprised to see Eunice answer.

Normally the patchwork woman had something brash to say in her rather charmingly nasally voice and strong forceful posture, but now she just looked at Dracula with a nearly hard unreadable expression unbefitting of her usual character.

"Hello, Eunice," he said a bit remorsefully, knowing what she might be thinking, "I'm here to see Elona. Is she here? Is she alright?"

Eunice didn't answer but just continued to look at him hard, yet a bit of fear and sadness shown from her eyes.

"I really just want to see her, I promise I won't hurt her."

Her eyes looked around for a few moments as though considering what he said, finally she opened the door further and stepped aside to let him in.

Dracula found Eunice wasn't alone in Elona's suite, the other ladies were there as well along with Dr. Simon as he took a needle and injected something into an IV bag set next to Elona's bed, which had a tube penetrated and taped to her right arm.

His eyes went straight to the bed and who occupied it; Elona lay there nearly as pale as a ghost with a grey tint to her normally soft Caucasian pinkish tan skin, she was out of her dress and now wore soft white long sleeved pajamas with the hotel logo on a small right pocket, and an oxygen machine had been brought up with the IV medicine and now also stood next to her bed with a tube going to her face up her nose and looped around her ears.

Dr. Simon packed up his medical bag as he finally saw Dracula had arrived and made his way towards the door as he said, "I've done all I can for her for now, but I honestly don't think she'll make it to another day. For now all that can be done is to keep her comfortable, but I also don't know if she'll wake up as she's lost a lot of blood and the toxin in her system is really virulent, and because of her condition I regret to say it makes it worse for her. Is there anyone else with her at the hotel, friends or family? It might be best if they were with her now, to make peace and be with her in her last hours."

For some long moments, Dracula and the ladies didn't say anything as they were too depressed and saddened with possibly losing their friend.

Dracula finally answered, "No, she came here alone. But I…we are her friends, the only family she's had for some months now."

A thick silence fell over the room again, but Dracula could sense all eyes on him. He didn't need his psychic powers to know what they were thinking, although what Dr. Simon thought didn't concern him much other than what he could do to help Elona.

But Eunice and the girls, he knew very well what they were thinking considering what had happened earlier, and this must have been what it was like in some way for Elona for a long while.

Concern, betrayal.

And fear.

He never wanted any of his friends, or even his daughter to see him that way. There was a reason he tried to hide such a darker side to himself, why he wanted to forget about it.

He had lied before, white lies for sure, but that was different.

Was keeping something secret about yourself still lying, even if they never mentioned in some way? Was omitting a truth still a lie?

These were questions he knew he will have to confront soon, but at the moment he was more worried about Elona.

"Could I have a few minutes alone with her?" he asked sadly.

"Of course, Your Grace," Dr. Simon said as he left the room, "Let me know if there's any change."

"I will, thank you," he said low as the doctor left the room, Eunice and the ladies soon followed as they gave him a mix of weary and worried looks.

Finally alone in the room with an ailing Elona, he walked slowly to the side of her bed and fell to his knees as he gingerly took her grayish lifeless hand into his own pale one and just held it for the longest time.

Once full of so much passion, tenacity, and joy, so full of life, she now looked so small, frail, and fragile. So vulnerable.

A tear of guilt fell from one of his eyes; guilt of failing to protect her, for allowing his anger and rage to take control of him, and that was made worse for never telling or being more honest about his darkest secret, the true nature and form of his Hunger.

And worse yet, guilt for perhaps pushing things too quickly between them because he also feared losing her and he had been impulsive about it.

"I'm sorry, Elona, my Beloved," he said in a low sad voice as another tear fell from his eye, "I'm so sorry. I still don't understand how I pushed you to this, but I know it's my fault. I just hope you can forgive me. Just please, don't leave me, I can't bear to lose you." His tone became a plea as the despair weighed so heavily upon his heart. "Not again. I can't bear this again. To whatever higher power there is, please, not again."

He quietly began to weep as he buried his face in her covers, still gently clenching her hand as though to hold onto the last fading signs of her life and his sanity.

All was still and quiet in the room, save for the faint hissing of the oxygen machine, his quiet weeping and long moments of turmoil within.

But then came signs of hope, of life.

He quickly looked up with a soft gasp, trails of tears shimmered like crystal upon his pale skin. For a moment he thought he had imagined it but he could sense his prayer must have been heard as Elona's weak grip clasped to his hand and he saw her slowly stir from her near comatose state.

At last her eyes opened half way to be a bit glassed over as she said in a weak voice, "Nn, what happened? Where am I?"

She then felt someone holding her hand tightly, yet with such gentle familiarity as she asked feebly, "Drac, is that you?"

"Yes, my Beloved Sweet Guts, it's me," he breathed with some relief as he came into her view to look into her glassed over eyes, "Everything is alright now, I'm here. It's going to be okay."

"What happened?" she asked weakly, "I feel so tired, so weak."

Dracula's face fell a bit as he averted his gaze from his ailing love, unsure of how to answer.

He finally asked, "What's the last thing you remember?"

Elona took some moments to answer as she tried to remember, finally saying in a weak husky voice, "Running through the spooky forest and running into Quasimodo, and then being attacked by a bunch of giant bat monsters. He gloated to me something about proving his point and I was a weakness to you. I tried to fight and get away but then I felt a horrible pain in my back and suddenly feeling weak, and then nothing."

Dracula remained silent for a long second as he let this sink in, partly relieved she may not have seen him in his Hunger form, yet he couldn't help but sense she still may know something.

"Wait," she moaned as though thinking, "I thought I saw…maybe it was a dream, but I thought I saw a creature that looked like kinda like you attacked those bat freaks, only frightening somehow."

Dracula looked away, unable to meet her gaze. Though he had shared his darkest secret with her, he still hoped she would never see him that way. If she did, he was certain she would reject him because he would have proven there were some truths to the evil his very name was associated with in the humans' stories.

Now it seemed his worst fears were coming true.

Elona stared at him as understanding came to her, how his face dropped and he purposefully avoided eye contact.

"Drac," she pleaded low, but he said nothing.

Instead he steadily began to losen his grip on her hand, but she gently but weakly tightened her own grip, unwilling to let him go and making him give a confused look as she said with a weak smile,

"It's okay, I think I know why. In a strange way, you were magnificent. Thank you."

His expression went from sadness and shame to astonishment, in a way she has forgiven him and could overlook his flaw because she must love him that much.

For only a brief moment his heart filled with relief and gladness at this, bu it was fleeting as he remembered there were more consequences because of his uncontrollable recklessness.

His sad frown returned as he said low, "But, it's still my fault you got hurt, because I unintentionally hurt you, pushed you too fast…"

"No, Drac, it's mine," she interrupted, making him give a vexed looked as she continued, "If I hadn't gotten so judgmental and freaked out, if I had just listened. If I hadn't listened to that hunchback freak…"

For half a second, Dracula eyes flashed at the mention of Quasimodo, with lingering anger at that manipulative deformed scion, but relieved it wasn't entirely his fault though that was just a small consolation as he still believed he was responsible for her current state.

He still knew he had pushed her to be like this, and somehow he had to make it up to her, to save her somehow.

"I still pushed you," he said low, "I shouldn't have tried to change you because I feared losing you; I should've been more patient, should've known to wait a little longer…"

"And I should've listened to your side of the story," she said sadly, "It's something I've always tried to do before jumping to conclusions. But I was just so scared…"

"I know," he said with a bit of weep, "What did he say to you?"

"He said you 'couldn't change your fangs' or something. He said you wanted to do the same thing to me like you did to Lucy and Mina in the book, and it made me kind of compare and connect you with my old boyfriend," tears formed in her eyes as she spoke weakly, "I thought you wanted to rape me."

Dracula seemed to blush a bit as he said, "I would never…well, I…" He tried to gather his thoughts as he took a breath and tried to explain, "I hypnotized you to numb you to the pain, but I…went overboard, as we made out, and...but, I would _never_ rape you. But, you're not wrong about me wanting to…"

He could see the small look of shock she gave him as he confessed, but he tried to reassure her, "But, uh, eh, I know we're not ready. I admit, I…long for you, I've had…thoughts…dreams…" She gave a look at this, but he continued, "But I made you a promise, and I'll keep it for the next thousand years if I have to, like I made Johnny promise me he would never touch my Mavy until _after_ they were married."

Elona gave a weak smile as she said, "You really are old fashioned that way, but that can be a good thing. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

"You have every right to, I don't blame you."

"I'm embarrassed to admit, I've…had similar…" she began to confess, which made him blush more and give a bit of a goofy smile, "Maybe, we could pick up where we left off when I'm better, and maybe I might be ready after…"

She saw his face dropped as she saw a clear soulful sadness in his icy blue eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked, "Is it that bad?"

He hesitated for another long moment, then finally began to explain, "You must understand, as I've told you about Vampire venom, but there's differences between Vampires like me and those damn minions my father keeps as pets. The kind of venom they have is only used to weaken and paralyze their prey, make it easier for them to capture and consume their prey, it's what they used on you. It's also more like a hemotoxin, it can eat away at the victim from the inside, even rot their organs."

Elona's face dropped in further understanding, a small tear rolled down her cheek as she said sadly, "I'm rotting from the inside? And with my HIV, it means…"

Dracula's sad expression and silence was answer enough.

Nothing was said for the longest time, for both could only take solace and comfort in each other's presence.

"I'm so sorry," Dracula wept low as another crystal tear fell from his eye.

"Me, too," she also wept weakly, "My only regret now is we won't be together. I won't be with you in life, but I'm glad you're here with me, at the end."

He just smiled sadly to her, glad to be by her side near the end, too.

But it didn't have to be the end, it can't be. It shouldn't be. Not this time. He can't bear to lose another Zing.

Since coming to her room, he has considering doing something radical, something he admitted to almost doing to her before, but this time will be different.

But he knew he couldn't force it on her, it had to be her choice.

"You know, it doesn't have to be this way," he said slowly, "You know I have…certain abilities. I can help you, I can save you. If you'll let me."

She looked at him with hope and skepticism as he continued, "I remember how you told me being like me has too high a price. But I can be sure, I promise you, you won't lose your humanity, you won't lose your soul. Let me help you, I can teach you."

Ever so lightly he caressed her pale face with such affection, it was like being touched by a cool autumn breeze even as her own life giving warmth was fading but tried to cling to any last signs of life, all while his other hand held hers to his chest where she strangely felt a steady heart beat.

Elona knew what he was asking, almost pleading to her to let him do. She was hesitant, even a bit frightened by what he was offering, but if it meant a chance of being with him, even a second chance for a new life no matter how limiting, she was willing to take the chance.

"Are you sure?" she asked almost hopefully.

"Only if you trust me," he gently whispered as he lightly pushed some silky brown hair away from her smooth neck and behind her ear, "Do you trust me, my precious night star?"

"Yes," she whispered breathily, "But how does it work?"

"Unlike the kind poisoning you now," he began to explain, "Mine does whatever I want it to, but it'll take a lot of concentration. Do you want me to hypnotize you, numb you to the pain?"

"No, I need to know it's real."

He gave a small nod as they closed their eyes as he tenderly, yet with such passion kissed her soft warm lips which were always with such sweetness and fire as his own, while his for her were like a cool smoothness and left behind a small burning spark. As they kissed, she playfully flicked her tongue tip on one of his formidably sharp fangs, not enough to draw any blood but it was enough to tell her what was coming and it seemed to momentarily excite him.

He then made of a path of lightly kissing her forehead, her nose, both of her cheeks, her delicate yet strong chin, and then along her jaw line to make his way to her ear and playfully nibble on it before kissing a trail along her neck, all the while it felt like he left behind a path of cooling ice to give way to small burning sparks upon her skin.

He softly breathed in her sweet human scent, mixed with the shampoo and perfume still lingered from what she wore at the party as well as the wild dark scents of the forest, the cold night air, and the poisonous venom now coursing through her veins and he now hoped to counteract and quash.

Her smell alit his heart with desire and made him tingle as he gently whispered, "This is going to hurt."

His voice was tinged with sadness and regret for hurting her this way, but somewhere lingered a sign of hope.

He gripped her hand tightly yet gently between his own two, momentarily savoring its fading warmth as he tightly closed his eyes to concentrate as he dug deep within himself to bring forth long suppressed ancient instincts, while she closed her eyes and turned her head to expose the right side of her vulnerable soft neck.

Absolute focus was needed, all other thoughts must be banished and nothing else matters. There must also be no doubt, no uncertainty, and no distractions as there was only the power and its purpose.

His eyes snapped open to glow icy blue, his pupils like the slits of a cat's eyes.

He slowly opened his mouth wide as a soft snake like hiss escaped his throat, and his fangs elongated to twice their length, becoming all the deadlier.

Then, like a second nature, his fangs penetrated tender flesh, right into her jugular vein to inject a small dose of his own Vampire venom. He resisted the instinctual urge to suck and feed upon her blood, as he needed to remain focused on his intent. On a subconscious level, part of him was disgusted with himself and what he had done earlier.

Elona gasped at the sudden pain in her neck, but despite her weakened ailing condition, she forced herself to hold still as she clenched her teeth and gave soft groans as Dracula's fangs were like two much thicker hypodermic needles.

Gradually the pain faded to give way to a soothing numbness, making Elona feel groggy as her mind began to sink into a dizzying euphoria as her vision became further clouded and psychedelic images began to dance in her eyes. Somehow she still had enough strength and awareness to feel a cool hand gently caressing her cheek once again, making her realize he had withdrawn his fangs from her neck, though she didn't know when and she could only see his blurred silhouette in her clouded vision.

"Drac," she said weakly as her breathing slowed and a growing tiredness began to overtake her.

"Shhh, shh, shh," he hushed her as he lightly placed a long finger upon her lips as he whispered, "Rest now, my Beloved, you're safe now. You'll be alright. I'll be right here with you while you sleep."

She closed her eyes as he gently and lovingly kissed her forehead, and then her hand before reluctantly releasing it. He made her as comfortable as possible and tucked her in like he used to do for Mavis as a little girl as he adjusted the bed covers.

He telekinetically once more brought a chair to sit in by the bed side as he watched her with a growing wariness and heaviness upon his heart hoping he did the right thing, yet also making him feel older than he appeared.

There then came a knock at the suite door, but he chose to ignore it as he wanted to be alone with a sleeping Elona and he just hoped whoever it was will just go away.

But another harder knock wrapped at the door, showing they wouldn't be ignored and meant business. He reluctantly left the master bedroom and closed its door as quietly as possible as he went to answer the suite's front door.

Answering it, he saw all of his friends and family waiting for him outside in the hallway, all staring at him with hard to read yet clearly worried expressions.

"She's sleeping," he said warily with a pseudo-smile, "I was told she's stable and she should be alright."

There was only a slight change in the tense air as he could sense Elona wasn't the only reason they had come.

Vlad put a hand on his shoulder as he said, "C'mon, son, I think it's time we all had a talk."

Something dropped within Dracula as he knew he could no longer put this off. He just gave a small nod of shame as everyone gathered into the living area for a much needed and long overdue talk.


End file.
